‘The terrible is ordinary now’: Memoir details Duterte's deadly war on drugs

Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte says he could re-enter the world of politics if his daughter, the Philippine vice president, is impeached for alleged embezzlement. When Duterte became president in 2016, he launched a violent war on

drugs

that led to the deaths of thousands of people say, "If someone's son is a drug addict, kill him yourselves," end quote. 2 days later, supporters of a monument honoring the victims of the Duterte regime broke ground in Manila. du's bloody legacy is the subject of a new book titled "Some People Need to Kill A." Memoirs of Murder in My Country the New York Times has just named it one of the 10 best books of 2023 and its author, journalist Patricia Evangelista, now joins us Pat, it's good to see you welcome, thank you for inviting me, congratulations and all the praise I mentioned top 10 of the Year from the New York Times Time magazine called it one of its books of the year and I think the title is so catchy that we should explain that some people need to be killed first.

Where does it come from? What does it mean? Well, not really the date. of former President Duterte in 2018 he was interviewing vigilantes who were accused of subcontracting, no he was interviewing vigilantes to whom the police had subcontracted the murder and he was in a room with a vigilante and he said he was a religious man, he said that he was a good man and he said that he killed drug addicts because he wanted to protect the future of his children and I asked him how that squared with this idea of ​​being a good person and he said I'm not a bad guy, I'm not.

Everything is wrong, it's just that some people need to be killed and that resonates throughout my country and it did on the campaign trail during President Rodrigo Duterte's campaign because DTE told the story that he took every fear and every grievance fueled by decades of failed expectations and then gave the enemy a name called it the scourge of illegal

drugs

and said I will kill to destroy it now it is easy to dismiss a politician's language and say it is just rhetoric but we cannot afford to do that we have learned through history when a man strong man says "I will kill", he means it when a strong man says "I will suppress the press", he means it when a strong man degrades a woman, he means it and when he uses words like threats, he will act on those words when you have power and that's what happened to us and the price is too high and the stakes are too high to ignore the language and I'll tell you a story that the price was paid by an 11 year old girl whose name is love love and love was the last word her father said when a vigilante shot a bullet through his temple and then love love tried to beg the Watcher to tell him not to shoot my mother and the Watcher stood in front of her and raised the barrel of the gun. . he pointed at his mother and said we are du and then he emptied the magazine it's top to bottom language so I want to go back to something you said because I probably stop people in their tracks and that's what you're talking about drug addicts we're not just talking about going after the drug cartels to stop drug trafficking, stop the flow of drugs, that's something that many governments do, of course, not the way he did, but they talk about eliminating them. all the drug addicts as if the drug problem would disappear if we could kill all those people so let me ask you who are the Vigilantes who carried out this order they were not only military they were not only police they were not In the government there were people who took their words and they acted on their own, it was an inspiration and, um, the police have killed at least 6,000 in each murder case, they claim that, uh, the drug addict, the drug dealer, the criminal, the suspect defended himself and always there is a gun on the ground next to the body supposedly the man had pulled out a gun and in defense of their lives uh the language they use in the police reports is that we were forced to replicate it um but the Rangers themselves um say that at least The Men I have spoken to say they believe in Rodrigo Duterte, that addicts are

terrible

people, that it was easy to demonize and dehumanize to take language like that and take it to the streets, so they did and they still think they are good men. they're just doing a job so he's out of power for now, we'll see if he finds his way back.

These death squads have disappeared. Is this effort over? Now people are still dying in the streets. Journalists continue to die. We no longer have a man standing at a podium saying "kill them all," but impunity persists, fear is in the streets, journalists wonder if it is dangerous to write what they write, so the war on drugs in its apogee it is not. It's not the same anymore, but the repercussions will be passed down through generations of children who walked down the street, saw a body and said, "This is normal,

terrible

is normal." Now Jonathan Lir is in Washington with a question for you, Pat John, uh, Patricia, good to see you, congratulations.

In the book, I was once in Manila with President Trump on a trip where he praised these former judicial killings of Duterte and we know that he has voice at least some idea of ​​having a similar policy at least here in the United States. with drug dealers maybe not drug users, tell us about the current Philippines, where things are with Urte and what possible comeback he could have. Well, President Duterte likes to talk and he likes his audiences and he likes applause. Which I think is familiar to many people. There are rumors that there may be some kind of acknowledgment that the International Criminal Court has put the Philippines under investigation.

There are also rumors that President Duterte may run if he so chooses, but right now, our President is the former dictator, son of Ferdinand Marcus Jr., his vice president is Rodrigo Duterte's daughter Sarah Duterte, so no a comeback is necessary for President Duterte. His family is in power. Le le, let's talk about the people who follow him and how he. he had a lot of followers um I I I I read this about Joy uh, an example of a Duterte believer. Joy's brother and cousins ​​were deep into her drug addiction, stealing from the family to buy meth.

Quote Joy was angry until the day Rodrigo Duterte finally announced that he was running for president she saw it on television it was like watching Jesus run home every time her husband sent her a message that Duter was on the air and heading straight to the television to hear Jesus speak she cried every time he repeated every interview every speech every clip she could Jesus would save her Jesus would free her Jesus understood Joy also knew what the second D in DDS meant she wasn't afraid to talk about how paralyzed uh many people in the Philippines they said we are du so the wonderful thing about duter and I say this as Narrator um is that he was able to make himself every man so that every man could be Rodrigo Duterte could be a hero he could be the Messiah he could be anything and um he's not especially in that there are charismatic men all around the world who will say scandalous things who will say dangerous things but not dangerous enough they could say take back the country they could say build a wall they could say um they could say destroy the addicts and protect the future of the children and then the dial turns a little bit and maybe they say things that are a little more dangerous but more acceptable, like kill addicts, kill journalists, maybe shoot thieves, maybe kill federal judges and, In the end, we realize that we know it can. it happens anywhere, that it is happening everywhere and that the Philippines is a warning about what happens when an autocrat can blow a dog whistle and is charismatic enough for the world to follow, and when that happens, people like me we stand on the street and count the bodies we look at the body with the head wrapped in packing tape and a sign next to it that says drug dealer or drug addict and we ask how the people allowed this to happen and then their autocrat will say that everything What I did was tell a story and we should take those stories very seriously and take her words very seriously just an impressive book so well told that it's called Some People Need to Kill A Memoir of Murder in My Country with, as she says, warnings around the world too Patricia Evangelista congratulations on the success of the book thank you for being here today thank you for having me and