‘I don’t care if he dies there (ICC). If he dies there, he dies, no problem. It would be better if he dies there so he could feel what his victims felt,’ Clarita Alia, who lost four sons to Duterte’s kill orders, says.
Clarita Alia, who lost four of her teenage children to Rodrigo Duterte’s kill orders, knows no fear, only grief.
She forgot how to be afraid when she was protecting her sons from false crime accusations, just as nothing else could scare her after assailants killed them. When Clarita decided to stand up against Duterte in his own bailiwick, fear was like a painful memory locked away in a closet.
“Fear? I have none of that. I only have strength to fight,” said the feisty 71-year-old woman.
Clarita is only one among a handful of Davaoeños who speak against Duterte. She may be a Davaoeña, but she’s determined to live her truth and condemn the Duterte dynasty.
She cried when she learned that Duterte was arrested on the strength of an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant on March 11. It did not come as a surprise to her because she always knew Duterte would be punished. She asked God for it — she prayed to the heavens for Duterte and his allies to be locked up for their sins against those who were killed.
Not minding what her neighbors said, Clarita rejoiced because she finally attained justice.
“[When] I visited the cemetery…I told my sons: ‘Digong has been arrested and I am happy but you’re no longer here. But I just want to show you that I fought for you, I didn’t stop. Son, this isn’t just for you but for the other victims,’” she recounted to Rappler.
As she has been doing in the last decade or so, Clarita has continued speaking up, telling people about her slain sons’ stories in light of Duterte’s ICC saga. People online started attacking her, saying she would make a good target because she was an alleged thief and a drug pusher, just like her slain sons. But she was unaffected.
Her neighbors also blamed her for Duterte’s fate, telling her that the former Davao City mayor was locked up because she has been talking about her sons’ fate for years. But Clarita was still unfazed.
“They (neighbors) would ask, ‘Does this lady have no empathy?’ and my reply was always, ‘Why? Did they have empathy for my kids? They were young. People are crazy…They told me I’m in it for clout. Huh? Clout? They should try killing four of their kids for that clout,” she said.
‘Mother’s grief is different’:
Clarita lives alone in her humble abode in Bankerohan after losing her four sons — Richard, Christopher, Bobby, and Fernando — to Duterte’s kill orders.
She has three other living children, but all of them are already living their own lives. To continue fighting for her sons, she prayed to God for strength and good health. This appears to have been granted so far because she has no health issues aside from having difficulty walking. She fends for herself and survives daily by pushing a cart.
“When I’m home and using my phone, I find it hard to stand up. So I really stand up to earn money. I walk fast for a 71-year-old, glory to God. I aged well. When I have a problem, I just cry. After that, it’s like all is well,” said Clarita.
Her family members, being homegrown Davaoeños, have mixed opinions about the Dutertes. Clarita said she never voted for any member of the Duterte dynasty, while one of her siblings is a staunch Sara supporter, so they got into a fight.
Her three surviving kids are concerned for Clarita. She speaks strongly against the Dutertes and are surrounded by the dynasty’s supporters, so her children are worried she might be endangering herself. They constantly remind Clarita to keep it low, but she insists on doing what’s right.
“They just tell me, ‘Be careful, they might target you,’ and I just tell them to bury me if that happens,” said Clarita.
“A mother’s grief is different. They [always] get shocked and ask, ‘Why are you still fighting?’ and I tell them that it will all come to be useful. God forbid that [when] I’m gone, [at least] I did what I can, not just for my sons but for every victim. That’s how people would know that I remained firm,” she added.
Losing four sons in less than a decade:
Clarita’s sons all failed to grow into adults — stabbed to death when they were teens by men believed to be members of the Davao Death Squad (DDS). All four were victims of Duterte’s violent drug war when he was mayor.
The killing of the Alia brothers was not included in the ICC case because the proceedings cover only alleged killings that happened between November 1, 2011 to March 16, 2019, or when the Philippines was still a signatory of the Rome Statute. But Clarita is compelled to tell her sons’ stories, as not every victim is willing to do the same.
Richard, 18, was framed by local cops for robbery and rape, said Clarita. A report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on DDS killings said Richard was cited as an alleged member of the “Notoryus” gang and had been arrested previously for petty crimes, but Clarita said the cops only made up stories about her Richard.
When Richard was arrested without a complaint and had been held by the police for days, Clarita sought the help of the Office of the Ombudsman. She refused to surrender Richard. This angered the police, she said, and a cop told her to “watch out because [her] sons will be killed, one by one!”
“Lord Jesus. They made up so many things. Richard didn’t have any cases. My heart hurts. To be honest, I could cry. To be honest, I felt so bad for him and the things he said. He said, ‘Ma, God forbid, Ma,’ and that if he dies, he hopes I would fight for him. I will fight for them endlessly,” Clarita declared.
Richard was stabbed to death on July 17, 2001 — less than 30 days since Duterte became mayor again after serving a three-year term as a lawmaker. Clarita was unsure if the police even probed into Richard’s murder.
Only three months had passed and Clarita had to say goodbye again to another son, 17-year-old Christopher, who was also stabbed to death in October 2001. Christopher was slain in Bankerohan market.
As their family was preparing for All Soul’s Day in 2003, Clarita’s 14-year-old son Bobby was taken by the police for allegedly stealing a cellphone. Clarita looked for her son everywhere. All the stations she went to had no Bobby under their custody.
Clarita vividly remembers that a police officer named “Ma’am Rowena” — who turned out to be retired police colonel Royina Garma — helped her find Bobby. Garma had been assigned to several posts in the Davao City police under Duterte. Fast forward to 2024, Garma was instrumental in exposing how Duterte used his Davao Death Squad and implemented a drug war campaign nationwide.
With Garma’s help, Clarita was reunited with her son. Bobby said he was tortured by the police and was made to sign a document. On the night of November 3, 2003, Clarita fell asleep and was wakened only by the loud shouts of her neighbors. Bobby suffered the same fate as his brothers — he was stabbed in the back with a butcher’s knife in Bankerohan market.
“That was the third time it happened to me, until now I’m unable to forget it…It was when Bobby died that I said to myself that I’ll work hard. I went to the police but they were of no help. It was like they didn’t see that I was grieving,” Clarita told Rappler.
To save her other son Fernando, 15, Clarita sent him away to a boarding school far from Davao City. But even there, Fernando still received threats. He returned to Davao City in 2006, and on April 13, 2007, he too, was stabbed to death.
‘I am not God’:
Clarita understands that her fight goes beyond her sons — it’s a duty to her fellow Davaoeños and victims who don’t have the courage to stand up to Duterte. Her opposition to him won’t change the fact that her sons are already dead, and she knows that not everyone is, and can be like her — a mother who’s speaking against Duterte’s atrocities.
“If you are victims, fight. Fight for the lives of your kids or your spouses. Fight because you gave birth to them, and asked God for their lives. You should take care of those lives so that people don’t waste them easily,” shared Clarita. “[I am doing this] so [others] can stand up for themselves or on their own. Because when I’m gone they’ll be thankful that someone fought for what was right.”
But just like any other human being, Clarita also feels resentment and anger. She carries a heavy weight in her heart because she has been a lone soldier in her battle for justice. When she filed a complaint before with the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), she said she was interviewed only about her complaints, and nothing much came of it because of the body’s limited powers.
“Clarita Alia’s concerns were echoed by many other persons interviewed by Human Rights Watch. They said that even the witnesses to the killings were not willing to testify out of fear, believing that the police work hand in hand with death squad members,” said the HRW in its 2009 report.
Clarita feels bitterness toward members of the legal profession who did not help her when she needed them, but are now crying injustice when Duterte was arrested. “The lawyers didn’t care. All I can say is that those lawyers who are helping Digong now that he is being tried didn’t care about the people who were killed here. They are really blind,” Clarita said.
She feels strongly against fellow Davaoeños who still support the Dutertes despite the thousands killed in the name of his merciless anti-drug campaign. But while this reality pains her, Clarita is not mad at people who have chosen a divergent path.
“So I’m telling the people rallying in support of Duterte to use their heart for the people. For many years, they stayed alive while people died. They are alive but they’re disgusting. They are decaying already. They didn’t care about the victims before, and now, they cry [for] Digong? What is he? God? They idolize him too much. It hurts me,” she said.
But toward Duterte Clarita does not feel even an inch of pity. She doesn’t fear him, she despises him. Clarita wants him punished because he ordered the killings. Duterte needs to be locked up because he did not only enable violence, but also encouraged it by rewarding cruelty.
“Did he (Duterte) give me sympathy? Huh? They have money, I don’t because my only living is hard labor and they still killed my kids. They are shameless to ask for forgiveness. I’m not God, they should ask his forgiveness,” Clarita told Rappler.
“I don’t care if he dies there (ICC). If he dies there, he dies, no problem. It would be better if he dies there so he could feel what his victims felt. That’s actually possible because God knows what he did to others. He should be jailed there, die there, get old there.”
Rappler: She lost 4 sons to Davao’s DDS killings and fears no one — not even Duterte
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