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rapplerAds.displayAd( "mobile-middle-1" );DAVAO, Philippines – Clarita Alia’s life has been defined by loss and the fight for justice. Living in a rundown shack in Davao’s Bankerohan Market area, she has spent years chronicling her grief in a diary – a personal record of pain, memories, and a crusade against the forces that took her four sons.
Her personal journal, which contains her personal reflections, holds worn-out sheets of paper, police charge sheets, and yellowed newspaper clippings – physical evidence of the brutal deaths of her children and the legal battle she waged against their alleged killers, including a policeman.The 71-year-old Alia’s four sons – Richard, Christopher, Bobby, and Fernando – were killed on separate occasions allegedly by the so-called Davao Death Squad (DDS) long before Duterte’s rise to the presidency. They were minors, and killed on suspicion of involvement in crimes such as rape and theft, offenses often linked to drug use.
She told Rappler on Monday, March 17, that she cried when she learned about Duterte’s arrest from her neighbors and social media and nosy neighbors.“I burst into tears,” she said, adding that she saw a ray of light in a long nightmare – one that began years ago when Duterte seemed untouchable.Alia had been invited to testify at the recent high-profile House quad committee hearings on extrajudicial killings in the House of Representatives.
But she sai.