DAVAO CITY, Philippines — Clarita Alia has visited the San Pedro public cemetery every week for the last two years. From evening until dawn, she camps beside the graves of her two teen-age sons, stabbed to death a year earlier in separate attacks.
When her 14-year-old son, Bobby, was released from jail last year after being suspected of petty theft, she immediately took him to call on his brothers. She warned Bobby to be on his guard or he might soon join them.
Two nights later, he did.
As Bobby got on a motorcycle after leaving a karaoke club, a short man in a black jacket and jeans buried a hunting knife in his back, Alia recalled, citing witness accounts. Bobby got off the bike to flee but was stabbed again in the right shoulder. He scrambled for nearly a quarter-mile through a marketplace, clutching his shoulder to stanch the bleeding, before he stumbled over a chair and collapsed.
Like his brothers, Bobby was swept up in a wave of unsolved killings in Davao. In the first nine months of this year, there were 94 such killings, according to figures compiled by a coalition of human rights, legal and children’s advocacy groups. Since 1999, there have been more than 200, and only one prosecution.
The murders have terrorized the poor here in the largest city in the southern Philippines. But local officials say they are untroubled by the killings, which they say have made Davao a safer city for tourists.
"I don’t mind us being called the murder capital of the Philippines as long as those being killed are the bad guys," said Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, dubbed the "Dirty Harry of Davao" by the public. "From day one, I said henceforth Davao city will be very, very dangerous for criminals. I’ve been telling criminals it’s a place where you can die anytime. If that’s a cue for anybody, that’s fine."
Davao police attribute the murders to personal grudges between criminals and to gang violence. Many residents, however, say they think a death squad is operating with the blessing of local officials, targeting suspected drug peddlers, pickpockets and other petty criminals.
Duterte said he did not know who was committing the murders, and he took responsibility for the lack of prosecutions. "I’m more interested in solving crimes against innocent people. I’m not at all interested in the killings of criminals, especially people involved with drugs," he said.
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