A survivor has tagged two women for allegedly leaving a bag reportedly containing the powerful improvised bomb that exploded in popular and crowded night market in Davao City late on Friday night, killing at least 14 people and wounding 67 others a lot of them seriously. This statement follows Andanar’s report in an ANC interview on Saturday, September 3, that a curfew would be implemented in parts of Mindanao.
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President Duterte issued a “state of lawlessness” which will impose checkpoints all over the country and enforce curfews. However, he clarified that his declaration did not amount to the imposition of martial law in the archipelago, Reuters reported.
An improvised bomb caused the explosion at a packed Davao City night market that left 14 people killed and dozens other wounded, the chief of the Philippine National Police said Saturday.
However De la Cerna, spokeswoman of a task force investigating the explosion, said they were not ruling out other motives for the attack.
The Abu Sayyaf Group was founded in 1990 and has gained notoriety for beheading hostages if ransom demands are not met.
Asked if the Davao City attack had anything to do with President Rodrigo Duterte’s war against drugs, Andanar said,”We can not deny the fact that we also have enemies (among) the drug lords”.
“While nobody has owned up to this act, we can only assume that this was perpetrated by the terrorist group Abu Sayyaf that has suffered heavy casualties”, he said.
Duterte clarified that the “state of lawlessness” is not synonymous to martial law, adding it merely requires “well-coordinated efforts of the military and the police”.
Since his inauguration as president at the end of June, some 2,000 people have been killed in a nationwide crackdown on drug dealing.
Abu Sayyaf and some smaller militant groups have pledged allegiance to Islamic State.
President Barack Obama will have an opportunity to offer his personal condolences to Duterte when the two leaders plan to meet on the sidelines of a regional summit in Laos next week, Price said.
Philippine’s National Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana said he “assumes” the attack was carried out by the Islamist militant group Abu Sayyaf.
Duterte led a controversial presidential campaign marked by inflammatory speeches that prompted comparisons with the U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
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The militants threatened to launch an unspecified attack after the military said 30 of the gunmen were killed in the week-long offensive.
