The Philippine government has blamed the armed Abu Sayyaf group for a blast that killed at least 13 people in the home city of President Rodrigo Duterte, prompting him to declare a “state of lawlessness”. Fifteen of the injured are in critical condition, CNN Philippines reported, citing Southern Philippines Medical Center Director Leopoldo Vega.
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Abu Sayyaf is a violent extremist group that split from the established Philippines separatist movement Moro National Liberation Front in 1991.
The group’s spokesman, Abu Rami, took credit for Friday’s attack, calling it a “call for unity to all mujahideen in the country”, according to the Philippines’ ABS-CBN News.
“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”, Lorenzana was quoted as saying by Reuters.
He called for unity and told the public to “complain less and do more” in the wake of the explosion in Davao, on the southern island of Mindanao, on Friday.
In response to the attacks President Duterte has declared a “state of lawlessness” – or more commonly know as martial law with the military assisting law enforcement in an effort to stabilize the situation.
“There is a crisis in this country involving drugs, extrajudicial killings and there seems to be an environment of lawless violence”, said Duterte, who promised to tackle crime, corruption and drug use when he was inaugurated as president back in June.
In his typical foul-mouthed style, Duterte responded: “I am a president of a sovereign state and we have long ceased to be a colony”.
“Unfortunately, we can not frisk or order people to stop because it would be fascistic”.
Duterte said he would demand that Obama allow him to first explain the context of his crackdown before engaging the USA president in a discussion of the deaths.
Since Duterte took office just over two months ago, the government said more than 2,400 people have been killed in his anti-crime crusade, an increasingly controversial campaign that has drawn United Nations condemnation. Police say at least 239 drug suspects were killed in the three weeks after Duterte’s inauguration.
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Leonor Rala, a 19-year-old medical technology student at San Pedro College, told CNN Friday night that she was terrified after the blast struck near her dorm. However, she said that an additional 1m Philippine peso will be paid for catching the culprits alive. Emergency teams were already in place. “We will not allow that we will be corrupted by the forces of falsehood and deception but rather to be steadfast in our commitment to pursue peace and justice which are gifts from God”, he said. “Some of my schoolmates are victims of the explosion and now dead”. “It’s a sad day for Davao and for the Philippines”.
