This is gonna be a long review due to the fact that the author has touched on a lot of points in his book. <img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EfJo-smXoAAZqLm?format=jpg&name=small" width="500" height="500" alt="description"/> <blockquote> This is a powerful, painful and brave approach to shedding light on the realities Filipinos face when the world slumbers dearly. </blockquote> I already had an idea of that the book was gonna delve into Extrajudicial killings here in the Philippines and I wanted to know if the author was just gonna be truthful in his approach. I am so so thankful he was truthful in his approach. If anyone even wants an intro to the Philippines through fiction, this is on that list of books you must read. Before I get on with the other points of the book, I realized that the author also emphasized on relationships we have and in valuing them before it's too late. Especially when it came to that ending. **also, I'm not pro cheating so I wasn't into Mia at all. Philippine Culture Philippine History Philippine Politics & Social Issues - this is the longest and heaviest part I'm gonna mention <b>Culture </b> Yep. It's got a whole lot of very Filipino things involved: 1. Karaoke & how Filipinos are really great singers - ON POINT. It's never a celebration without the karaoke/videoke where everyone reaches for the mic & songbook 2. Sinigang - Best Pinoy Food 3. Pasalubong & Balikbayan boxes - Coming home from somewhere? Don't forget to give your relatives gifts 4. Tita Bibi - OKAY. This made me laugh out loud. For some odd reason, almost every single Filipino has a relative who is called "Tita Baby" -- I have 2. 5. Huge families - No matter how far related you are (like third degree cousins), you're still cousins and related to people they are related to. 5. Catholicism - Besides being part of culture, I think Randy Ribay wanted to point out as well how the Catholic Church could not meddle in the issue due to separation of Church and State. There's that irony where Tito Manning is a fervent Catholic while he knew hundreds or thousands were being killed under his hands as Chief. Huh. <b>History</b> The readers are introduced to Philippine History & Landmarks while you read the book. It's really an introduction to the Philippines. The moment the National Museum was mentioned, I knew Ribay was gonna talk about the <i> Spoliarium</i> by Juan Luna which is an image now used once again by Filipinos in relation to the drug war. He also mentioned Marcos and the irony of how people look up to him while discrediting how the Marcoses embezzled tons from the Filipinos during his admin. <b>Politics & Social Issues </b> I believe Randy Ribay has introduced to the world the numerous problems we are currently facing here. The reader is introduced to the rampant cases of Extrajudicial killings here in the Philippines which really sky rocketed when the current admin was elected. I've heard stories from families of EJK victims and the pain lingers. YES, Kian Delo Santos is real. He was really killed by policemen. This book captured that pain relatives of these victims felt. There's actually too many to mention here but Randy Ribay has also mentioned the case of political prisoners (in the case of Senator Leila De Lima, yes, she is also real) and how being vocal here can get you in trouble (most especially NOW). It also delves into the Filipino mindset on the extremes of colonialism. Ribay was able to voice out the reason why some Filipinos are really against any foreign intervention due to the Philippines' history of American & Spanish colonizers and the abuses during those times. A lot of arguments thrown at people who don't live in the PH would always throw the line that "you don't live here" or "you didn't grow up here" as a reason to support the drug war and other CURRENT ISSUES. I am thankful that it was pointed out that you don't need to live in a country to be able to fight or stand for human rights. It is your right to live and not be killed whether you are guilty or not (we have no death penalty). Even if one is guilty, you aren't supposed to be killed, you have the right to due process. Unfortunately, that's not true here with the people in power... Overall, I am grateful for having read this book. It was so heavy that I couldn't bear to read it straight. I had to stop for breaks (maybe because I knew true stories of EJK and they all came running back to me). Thank you for writing this and for writing this in English for the world to read and be educated about.