Andanar said the police and military have been mobilized to suppress security threats but would need the cooperation of the public. However, the federal government made it clear that this state of emergency, is not the martial law.
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The booklet said that since Duterte took office 7,532 drug operations had been carried out, 12,972 pushers and users had been arrested, and police operations in July reduced crime by 49 percent from a year earlier.
“What has been happening unabated and with impunity are the extrajudicial killings perpetrated by police authorities and their civilian cohorts”, Lagman said.
The police chief pointed to the kidnap-for-ransom Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) as possibly behind the bombing and said it could be a “diversionary tactic” as the government is now on an offensive in their strongholds in islands in the southwestern part of Mindanao.
Philippines police said on Sunday they were searching for three people wanted for questioning over the incident.
Senior Supt Dubria said “there may be more persons of interest”.
Another person may have detonated the device with a cellphone, he suggested.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has vowed to personally tear apart and eat Abu Sayyaf Islamic militants, in a bloodthirsty vow of revenge for deadly attacks.
Gaerlan also said the police were still not confirming that what exploded was indeed a bomb.
Abu Sayyaf is a violent extremist group that split from the established Philippines separatist movement Moro National Liberation Front in 1991.
Police said they themselves killed 1,011 drug suspects with 1,391 others listed as “deaths under investigation”.
A few hours after the attack, Duterte visited the bomb site shortly before dawn Saturday and told reporters, “I am declaring state of lawless violence”.
The “state of lawlessness” is the mildest of the three executive powers the President can order, giving him the power to summon the military and work more closely with police, but falls short of being a declaration of martial law.
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The military is continuing to press an offensive against the Abu Sayyaf in Jolo following a clash on August 29 that left 15 soldiers dead.
