ONE OF THE EARLIEST TO SEEK JUSTICE For Clarita Alia, 71, mother of four sons whom she believed were killed by the Davao Death Squad, the arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte on March 11 was an answered prayer. Photo taken on Wednesday. 鈥擥ermelina Lacorte
DAVAO CITY, Philippines 鈥� Clarita Alia burst into tears upon learning that former President Rodrigo Duterte had been arrested and handed over to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to be tried for crimes against humanity.
Between 2001 and 2007, Alia lost four sons to killings that she believed were perpetrated by Duterte鈥檚 so-called Davao Death Squad (DDS), a group that dispatched suspected criminals with impunity in the city, where then Mayor Duterte earned the moniker 鈥淭he Punisher.鈥�
Alia鈥檚 anguish predated 鈥淥plan Tokhang,鈥欌�� the bloodstained antidrug campaign launched by Duterte when he became President.
It predated the rise of Ferdinand Marcos Jr., whose presidency would see Duterte off to The Hague, the Netherlands.
It predated the political warfare that is expected to escalate as a backdrop to Duterte鈥檚 legal battle at the ICC.
It even predated the country鈥檚 membership in the ICC.
And yet the pain felt so fresh for Clarita on March 11, the day Duterte was arrested鈥攁nd The Punisher ceased to be untouchable.
鈥業鈥檓 so thankful鈥�
She fell asleep crying that day, she told the Inquirer in an interview on Wednesday.
鈥淓ven if he is imprisoned very far from here, I feel so happy that this day finally came,鈥� Alia said, stifling a sob. 鈥淚鈥檓 so thankful. I鈥檝e been asking God for this day.鈥�
Reportage on the Duterte drug war usually highlights its viciousness by emphasizing the death toll: About 6,000, based on the official government count; or up to 20,000, based on estimates from human rights watchdogs.
The ICC case, however, focuses on 43 killings鈥�19 of them allegedly committed by the DDS in Davao during Duterte鈥檚 years as mayor from 2011 to 2016; and 24 by the police during the first half of his presidency, from 2016 to 2019.
At 71, Alia now lives alone in a shanty at the Bankerohan public market area. The former vegetable vendor now ekes out a living by offering a pushcart to other vendors or buyers who need help with their heavy load; she does the pushing herself.
She continues to blame the DDS for the deaths of sons Richard and Christopher just months apart in 2001, Bobby in 2002, and Fernando in 2007. Their cases received scant attention from the police.
Just 鈥榞ang war鈥� victims
At the height of the Davao killings, in the early 2000s, this lack of official action impelled local nongovernment organizations to band together and form a support system for the grieving families.
The resulting umbrella group鈥擟oalition Against Summary Executions (CASE)鈥攎ay be considered the first to recognize a pattern or system behind the killings.
The lawyers assisting CASE, however, had a hard time building up cases for the families, again because local law enforcers remained unsupportive.
One of the lawyers, former Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate, recalled that in the case of the Alia brothers, the police easily dismissed them as victims of gang wars and ordinary criminals鈥攏ot DDS targets.
鈥楶oster woman鈥�
Until CASE heard of her plight, Alia felt so alone in her quest for justice. Those were the years when Mayor Duterte鈥檚 popularity was on the rise, when he would go on TV to read a list of suspected drug addicts, telling them to stop or just leave the city.
CASE allowed Alia to meet other families who had a similar fate. The group gradually worked to document and expose the killings.
But while she tearfully welcomed the recent serving of the ICC warrant on Duterte, the cases of of her four sons鈥攚hich happened years before the country joined the tribunal in 2011鈥攚ere not among the 19 DDS hits cited in the charges.
鈥淎lia was the first mother to have spoken against the DDS killings in Davao City; in fact, she became the poster woman against the extrajudicial killings in Davao City,鈥� said human rights advocate Carlos Conde, recalling a conversation he had with the mother last year.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 why she felt bad that the cases of her children were not included in the 19 cases from Davao City investigated by the ICC,鈥� said Conde, the Philippine researcher for Human Rights Watch, who had also reported on the killings for The New York Times.
鈥淚t really pained her to think that her sons, whose deaths were not investigated by local authorities, who merely dismissed them as drug addicts, also remained an 鈥榦utcast鈥� in the ICC,鈥� Conde told the Inquirer on Saturday.