The Association of Southeast Asian Nations is holding a summit in Laos next week, which will be attended by US President Barack Obama, among others.
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Security forces are searching for four people suspected to be behind last week’s powerful blast that killed 14 people and injured 67 at a busy night market in the southern Philippine city of Davao, police said Monday.
However Duterte also ordered a military offensive against the Abu Sayyaf, a small but extremely risky group of militants that has declared allegiance to Islamic State and vowed to continue fighting.
At least 30 people have been hospitalized.
Medialdea earlier said that the proclamation has no limit under the Constitution, contrary to martial law which has a 60-day limit.
The President also commanded the AFP and the PNP to prevent lawless violence from spreading and escalating elsewhere in the country with due regard to fundamental and civil political rights.
Regional police chief Manuel Guerlan said a ring of checkpoints had been thrown around the city’s exit points.
Duterte, who inspected the scene of Friday night’s attack at a night market in downtown Davao city, said his declaration did not amount to an imposition of martial law.
The blast tore through a street market outside the high-end Marco Polo hotel, a frequent haunt of Duterte, who was in the southern city of Davao at the time but was not hurt.
Before his daughter and defence secretary blamed the Abu Sayyaf, Duterte also raised the possibility of drug lords carrying out the attack as a way of fighting back against his war on crime.
“They are doing this to sympathize (with) our group and we are sending a message to President Rodrigo Duterte that all the Daulat throughout the country is not afraid of him”, he said.
The explosion apparently struck shortly after 10 p.m. local time, and police were working to determine what caused it, though they suspect it was a bomb.
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The explosive device was crafted from a mortar round, initial investigations of the fragments taken from the blast site showed, he said. REUTERS/Lean Daval Jr/File PhotoPhilippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Monday “plenty will be killed” before the end of his campaign against illegal drugs that has led to the death of about 2,400 people since he became president two months ago.
