Patricia Evangelista: Tragedy is an arc

Patricia Evangelista speaks to second year Holland College journalism students on interviewing victims of trauma. She spoke about issues in her country, the Philippines, as well. Evangelista is a reporter from Rappler, an online news website in her country.   Prabhjit Kaur photo.

By Yakosu Umana

Nov. 26, 2019

Love-love Peregrino and her family were in their apartment when two masked men broke in.

Her father turned to her.

“Love,” he said.

Those were his last words before a bullet tore through his head.

Her little brother was asleep on their father’s chest. He woke up covered in his father’s blood.

Love’s mother fell to her knees.

“Please, please just arrest me instead. My children are so young,” she begged.

One of the masked men turned to go, but the other pulled out his pistol again.

“We are Duterte,” he said.

He shot Love-love’s mother.

Love-love cursed at the gunmen, but they threatened to kill her if she kept talking.

Patricia Evangelista told this story to second-year Holland College journalism students last Wednesday. She is a journalist from Rappler, an online news network in the Philippines. 

She is touring Canada as part of an educational program organized by the Canadian embassy in the Philippines. 

The story was an example of Filipino president Rodrigo Duterte’s purge of criminals and drug dealers. When reporting on such issues, it’s best to stay balanced and cautious, despite the human right violations, Evangelista said.

Journalists should not let their bias get in the way of their reporting, she said.

“Most importantly, beware of your own confirmation bias. Be skeptical of your villains, heroes and victims.”

It is very important to get the facts right when covering such issues, she said.

“Bulletproof everything. Every sentence must to be fact-checked.

“There should be no surprise for the people you accuse.”

Evangelista then told a story about a victim of Typhoon Haiyan in 2013 in the Philippines.

Ramil Navarro was in the middle of a flood when people and animals clung to him in despair. He was well over six feet, so they grabbed him to keep from drowning.

Navarro shoved them away and swam off to find his family. 

He found his wife, half-drowned. His found his 11-year-old daughter under a tree after the water receded. She was dead.

Evangelista spoke with Navarro after the incident. 

“Were the families of the people you left in the water angry?” Evangelista asked him.

“No, of course not. There was no one left to blame, almost everyone was dead too,” Navarro said.

The estimated damage of the typhoon was roughly $4 billion.

Evangelista gave the journalism students tips on speaking to victims of such tragedies.

The rule of thumb is to ask themselves how they would want to be treated if they were the victim, she said. 

“Approach survivors with care, respect and compassion. Introduce yourself, make eye contact, offer sympathy.

“Do not ask how do you feel. Of course, they feel awful.”

Avoid being patronizing, Evangelista said.

“Don’t tell them I understand how you feel because there is no way you can understand. It is patronizing and insulting to pretend otherwise.”

Danger can come from anywhere, she said.

“A traumatic experience is any trauma. It doesn’t have to be a massacre, there doesn’t have to be a death toll.

“For as long as a single person is affected, it can be a traumatic event.”

When she was 24, Evangelista told the students, she and some freelance journalists were heading to a crime scene. Among the dead were journalists, lawyers, political aides and some family of a politician. 

They were stopped by soldiers at a checkpoint. They explained they were journalists, but the soldiers refused to let them continue.

“Please, take care,” one of the soldiers said.

The dead were ambushed by thugs.

“It was then I understood that they didn’t believe there was safety in numbers, particularly for journalists,” Evangelista said.