Mother testifies before Truth Commission about the killings of her four sons in Davao

During a session of the civil-society-led Truth Commission on extrajudicial killings, 72-year-old Nanay Alia testified that her four sons—Richard, Christopher, Bobby and Fernando—were murdered in Davao City over a six-year span. She claimed the police had warned that her children would be killed one by one and linked the killings to the alleged Davao Death Squad, describing the perpetrators as high-ranking officers who hired others to carry out the attacks.

Each son died from stab wounds, with Richard and Christopher found dead in 2001, Bobby in 2002 after an arrest, and Fernando in 2007. Dr. Raquel Fortun, a forensic pathologist, noted defensive injuries on Christopher and similar sharp-force trauma across the cases, urging the Commission to obtain death certificates, autopsy reports and hospital records. The Commission said it would seek those documents to determine whether a single group was responsible.