The explosion went off at about 10.30 p.m.at a night market outside the Marco Polo hotel, a place Duterte visits often and used for meetings during his national election campaign.
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However, the investigators were reportedly looking at other possible suspects.
The explosion happened in the city of Davao on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao.
Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte, who is also son of the president, issued a statement on Facebook in which he said it was too soon to determine who is behind the attack but insisted that “authorities are on top of this incident”.
However, evidence gathered from the scene support the possibility that Friday’s carnage was caused by a bomb, according to Malacañang representatives.
Presidential Communications Office Secretary Martin Andanar said President Rodrigo Duterte met with law enforcement and intel agencies in Davao City after the incident.
“We still can not identify what really caused the explosion but initially I was told, on my way here, that it was caused by an LPG (liquefied petroleum gas tank)”. United Nations experts have criticized the Philippines for a wave of extrajudicial executions and killings since Duterte took office. He had declined to alert the public to his latest intelligence after receiving criticism for circulating reports of a different unconfirmed threat.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet and the police have not disclosed any findings from their investigation, which is still underway. The Abu Sayyaf bandit group has recently vowed retribution against the Duterte administration for launching a major offensive against it.
“Any punitive action that will be taken by the security forces will be in a bid to stop terrorism”, Duterte stressed. The rebel organization is more typically known for extortion and kidnappings, but it has committed bombings in the past. He also mentioned the Maute group members who escaped from prison in Lanao. The militants have adopted IS symbolism and, like the ASG, pledged allegiance to their Middle Eastern counterparts.
Meanwhile, local radio station Radyo ni Juan Network reported that as of 12:50am the official data of the Southern Philippines Medical Center shows 31 were admitted, two of them died.
The 1987 Constitution allows the President to call on the armed forces “to prevent or suppress lawless violence”.
A series of attacks across Baghdad, including an explosion at a weapons warehouse that set off munitions and sent a huge plume of smoke over the Iraqi capital, killed 15 people and wounded over 50 on Friday, according to Iraqi officials.
Only days earlier Duterte had assured Filipinos he did not intend to become a dictator as the body count in his shoot-on-sight drugs crackdown topped 2000.
The president insists police have only acted in self defence, with other killings down to fighting between drugs gangs.
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His election has prompted a spike in drug-related killings, with more than 2,000 deaths since he took office on 30 June, almost half of them in police operations.
