Duterte, who was in Davao at the time of the attack but not near the market, told reporters before dawn on Saturday that it was an act of terrorism, as he announced extra powers for the military.
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Duterte was not near the scene of the blast when it occurred.
The Foreign Ministry said Singapore condemned the explosion, which “killed and injured many innocent people”. I thought it’s just barbecue.
TV footage showed plastic chairs strewn about at the scene of the blast, where witnesses said the bodies of some of the dead lay scattered a few hours after the explosion.
In a radio interview, Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said based on initial information from explosives experts, a shrapnel from a mortar was found.
Davao is the most populous city in the southern Philippines, with its two million inhabitants. It is about 1,500km (932 miles) from the capital Manila.
President Rodrigo Duterte, who served as a longtime mayor of Davao before assuming the presidency in June, was in Davao but has not issued any statement.
Duterte, who was dubbed “the Punisher” after a vigilante anti-hero in Marvel comic books, built his political reputation on a crackdown on the drug trade during his 22 years as mayor of Davao City.
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.
Some commanders of the Abu Sayyaf, which is blacklisted by the U.S. and the Philippines as a terrorist organisation because of deadly bombings, ransom kidnappings and beheadings, have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.
For years the group has carried out bombings, beheadings, assassinations and kidnappings while evading capture in lawless jungles of remote southern Philippine islands.
The Abu Sayaff Group which is battling government forces in Sulu has claimed responsibility over the blast.
Rodrigo Duterte, front centre, salutes the flag-draped coffins of 15 soldiers killed in a gunbattle with Muslim Abu Sayyaf militants on Monday.
The Abu Sayyaf said it conducted the 2005 attacks in response to an offensive against it at that time.
If it was a bomb attack, there are two prime suspects: the drug cartels Duterte has been vigorously at war with, and Abu Sayyaf, an Islamist group that was supposedly inching toward a cease-fire with the government, but in recent days has talked about waging “jihad” and a “last war, to the finish” with over a thousand fighters.
Duterte has made powerful enemies during his first three months in office, despite his popularity hovering around 90 per cent in the country with one of Asia’s highest rates of illegal drug use and crime.
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Security forces have conducted raids in communities throughout the country to arrest or kill drug traffickers. As investigations come underway and the weekend approaches, hopefully more details will be revealed about this crime that killed and injured so many innocent people.
