At least 10 people were killed and dozens wounded Friday in an explosion at a night market in downtown Davao City, the hometown of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.
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Police investigators collect evidence through injured and dead people lying on the ground, at the site of an explosion at a night market in Davao City, in southern island of Mindanao.
Gaerlan said a police and armed forces had been called in to secure the region.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Wednesday he was ready to defend his bloody crackdown on illegal drugs, which has sparked United States and global concerns, when he meets with President Barack Obama on the sidelines of an Asian summit next week.
Police and emergency personnel rushed to a night market area in Davao City after a blast ripped through Roxas street late Friday evening.
“There are at least 10 people who perished because of the incident and a number were reported wounded”, Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte wrote in a statement published to Facebook.
President Duterte said that the declaration will help stop terrorism and strengthen the campaign against illegal-drug trade in the country.
“A thorough investigation is being conducted to determine the cause of the explosion”, he said.
The government is now locked in a struggle with terror groups such as Abu Sayyaf and Maute.
And government troops have been battling Abu Sayyaf, which remains outside the country’s sputtering peace process.
Davao is the biggest city in the southern Philippines, with a population of about two million people.
The arbitration ruling, he said, proved that a huge swathe of offshore territory that China claims “is really ours”. I first saw smoke, and we thought it was from a barbecue stand.
The cause of the blast is not known, but presidential spokesman Martin Andanar said components of a suspected improved explosive device were found at the scene, according to CNN affiliate ABS-CBN.
Angelly added: “I just can’t bear everything that’s been happening”.
Mr Zarifi, the ICJ’s regional director for Asia and Pacific, told the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Thailand that the killings in the Philippines since 71 year-old Mr Duterte was swept into office at May elections are widespread and systematic, meeting the criteria under worldwide law of crimes against humanity that could be prosecuted by the global Criminal Court in the Hague.
“It is the extrajudicial killing of people getting rid of the criminals by their own hands”, said Duterte.
Duterte, the longtime mayor of Davao City, was elected president last May.
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Duterte has been defiant towards global criticism of his antidrug campaign, which has left almost 2,000 dead in the two months since he took office. It has resulted in more than 1,900 people being killed in a crackdown, which has drawn criticism at home and overseas.
