Brother hood

This book began on a sweaty, blackout afternoon. The computers and the lights had gone out and there was nothing more that could be done at our office except trade stories until the power returned. one of us told the story of her neighbor who accidentally smashed a police officer’s car, was badly beaten up and then nearly shot by the cop on a busy street, surrounded by scores of onlookers. It was a horrific tale, but also an altogether banal one. Many of us had our own police stories to tell. It struck us that there must be many more stories like ours and that they weren’t being told. The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism has been writing investigative articles for five years but has never done any reporting on the police. We had never given a grant to a photojournalist either, but soon after the blackout afternoon, Alex Baluyut walked into our office with a proposal to do a story about Laguna Lake.