DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 1 May) — The books of journalist Patricia Evangelista and Dr. Dennis John Sumaylo of the University of the Philippines-Mindanao were launched here Wednesday during the Book Talk Series of the World Press Freedom Day Forum at a local hotel here.
Book Talk 1 was on Evangelista’s “Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country” and Book Talk 2 was on Sumaylo’s “Engaging Isolated Communities in Disaster Preparation and Communication in the Philippines.”
Evangelista, who flew in from Manila, shared her first-hand experiences of covering extrajudicial killings and vigilante operations in Metro Manila during the bloody war on drugs waged by President Rodrigo Duterte from 2016 to 2022, a war he had waged earlier in Davao City while serving as mayor for 22 years.
Evangelista took five years to finish her book, not counting the years when she wrote stories as a field reporter going to crime scenes involving alleged drug users or pushers every night. In writing the book, she reviewed what she had written and returned to the relatives of those who were slain for more interviews and sought their consent to include their stories in the book.
She admitted being afraid of getting it wrong or misrepresenting someone, or putting something down that might get someone killed next week.
“We’re not cameras, we don’t record, keep, then delete it afterwards. We carry these voices with us,” she said.
Evangelista is a trauma journalist and former investigative reporter for Rappler. She graduated from the University of the Philippines in Diliman before working as a documentary producer for the ABS-CBN News Channel and as a columnist for The Philippine Daily Inquirer.
“Some People Need Killing” has been hailed as “a journalistic masterpiece” by The New Yorker. The book was longlisted for the inaugural Women’s Prize for Nonfiction and shortlisted for the New York Public Library’s Helen Bernstein Book Award.
Released in October 2023 by Random House, the book made it to the list of the New York Times’ Top 10 Best Books of the Year, A New Yorker and The Economist Best Book of the Year, and TIME’s #1 Nonfiction Book of the Year.
Davao City was the last stop of Evangelista’s Philippine Book Tour that started on April 8 in Payatas, Quezon City, where she reunited with the families of the victims whose stories she featured in the book and honored them for their courage.
Sumaylo, chair of the Department of Humanities of UP Mindanao, launched the book in December 2023 in Australia. This is the first launch of his book in the Philippines.
His book tackles challenges in communicating disaster preparedness in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas (GIDA).
Sumaylo suggested a framework which can help visualize awareness and help to locals living in the GIDA, preventing them from being left behind in disaster preparedness.
“There is a need to visualize, to put a face to the problem, kasi if we always talk about, let’s say the greenhouse effect, you can just imagine, but mahirap mag-expect ng action. But if they know na nasa kamay ng mga ordinaryong tao yung solusyon, they will stop using hairsprays, for instance,” Sumaylo said.
“Visualizing is documenting actual experiences of people… relatable stories might be more truthful,” he added.
In his inspirational message, Redemptorist Brother Karl Gaspar urged the media and other members of civil society to be more vigilant.
He lamented the seeming lack of reports on vital environmental issues we are facing.
He said he wants to know, among others, what is happening in Tampakan, if it is true that the mining firm is working very quietly to try to get the provincial government to lift the ban on open pit mining so it could start operations by 2026.
Civic society leaders, media, and other stakeholders gathered to celebrate WPFD through the book talks. Among those in the audience was Clarita Alia, who in the years between 2001 and 2007, lost four sons to extrajudicial killings here.
In her welcome address, Gail Ilagan, board member of the Mindanao Institute of Journalism, the organization that runs MindaNews, said WPFD is associated with media celebrations only but “this should be a shared celebration and shared reflection. Because we are all in this together.”
This year’s theme is “A Press for the Planet: Journalism in the Face of the Environmental Crisis.” (Ian Carl Espinosa / MindaNews}