Prizewinning journalist, bestselling author, and UP Diliman (UPD) alumna, Patricia C. Evangelista was back in the University to talk about her book Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country (Some People Need Killing), the activity that starts the Philippine tour of the acclaimed book.

Organized by the UPD Department of Speech Communication and Theatre Arts (DSCTA), the book talk had a good audience turnout as the Aldaba Recital Hall of the UP Theater had a full house. The audience composed of fellow journalists, UPD faculty, students, researchers, and staff filled the venue to hear Evangelista talk about her book on the extrajudicial deaths during the administration of former president Rodrigo R. Duterte.

Marielle Justine Ching Sumilong, an instructor at the DSCTA and the book talk host, informed UPDate Online in an email that Some People Need Killing is “Evangelista’s detailed chronicle of the Duterte-backed drug war in the Philippines.”

She further stated that the book is “considered one of the best books of 2023 by The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Economist.”

DSCTA Chair Oscar T. Serquiña said by taking part in the book tour and in sharing “our institutional resources with her [Evangelista], we are in significant ways affirming our alignment with and commitment to the principles that animate, if not propel, her book, namely, to remember the suffering of others and the harrowing conditions of its emergence, to shine the light on the stories of marginalized individuals, and to never forget the casualties and consequences of tyrannical rule.”

At the book talk, Evangelista read parts of her book before sitting to participate in an interview by journalist Atom Araullo and answer questions from the audience.

Evangelista shared that “If there’s anything I want people to take away from the book, it’s so that people could listen to other people’s stories—to listen outside their bubbles, to listen beyond what is publicly said, and to hear what is happening.”

Released in 2023 by Random House, the book was shortlisted for the New York Public Library’s Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism.