MALACAÑANG on Tuesday released a copy of Proclamation 55, declaring a state of national emergency “to suppress lawless violence in Mindanao and prevent it from spreading all over the country”, a day after President Rodrigo Duterte signed the document.
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It wasn’t immediately clear what a “state of lawlessness” entailed.
Senior Superintendent Michael John Dubria, police chief of Davao, said in a news briefing the “highly explosive arsenal” could have been placed inside a massage booth at around 10.30pm supposedly by a man seen fleeing the scene just before the explosion.
“I don’t know when but for the moment, according to law experts, the President’s public declaration would suffice”, he said.
Sixty-eight people were injured in the explosion at the crowded night market in President Rodrigo Duterte’s hometown, Dela Rosa said. The state of alert is highest in the capital Manila, where authorities have already tightened security.
President Duterte also commanded the military last week to use their full force to stop the Abu Sayyaf after the rebel group rejected his call to stop their terror attacks.
Meanwhile, Martin Andanar, Presidential Communications secretary said that investigators found shrapnel which were from mortar-based bombs which was an indication that the attack was planned to produce numerous casualties.
Police said they themselves killed 1,011 drug suspects with 1,391 others listed as “deaths under investigation”.
He was in Davao at the time of the bombing but far from the site of the blast outside a hotel where he often holds meetings.
In 2003, more than 30 people were killed and over 130 others wounded when alleged Muslim insurgents bombed the city’s old airport and passenger harbor within a month.
More than 2,000 people have died in the war on crime, and Duterte has vowed he will not let up until drugs are eliminated from society.
The city is part of the southern region of Mindanao, where Islamic militants have for decades fought a separatist insurgency that has claimed more than 120,000 lives.
Some commanders of the Abu Sayyaf, which is blacklisted by the United States and the Philippines as a terrorist organization for deadly bombings, ransom kidnappings and beheadings, have pledged allegiance to IS.
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“Our honest condolences go to the families and friends of those who were killed, and we wish a quick recovery to those who were injured”, it said.
