“The first thing we thought was “it’s a bomb”, said John Rhyl Sialmo III, 20, a student at the nearby Ateneo de Davao University. Davao is the hometown of the current president Rodrigo Duterte: 14 people died in the attack, at least 60 were wounded.
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“We extend our deepest condolences to the bereaved families and wish the injured a speedy recovery”, the authorities said. He also mentioned that the military were placed on high alert.
“For the city government side, we are working on that it is an Abu Sayyaf retaliation”, Davao city mayor Sara Duterte, who is also the president’s daughter, told CNN Philippines.
His election has prompted a spike in drug-related killings, with more than 2,000 deaths since he took office on 30 June, almost half of them in police operations.
Duterte will meet Barack Obama at a regional summit in Laos on Tuesday, although he has made it clear he will take no lecture on human rights from the US president.
Police are searching for the three – and possibly a fourth person – over the bombing, which has been widely blamed on the Muslim extremist Abu Sayyaf group.
“Initial investigations show they found shrapnel from a mortar-based improvised explosive device”, Martin Andanar, Secretary of the Presidential Communications Office, told DZMM radio.
Former president and now Pampanga representative Gloria Arroyo on Monday threw her support behind President Rodrigo Duterte’s declaration of “state of lawlessness” in the wake of the Davao City blast last Friday.
Duterte-Carpio said the money, which came from the funds of the city government, would be given in exchange for any information leading to the arrest of those behind the blast.
Friday’s incident was the latest in the southern Philippine city since 2005 when suspected Islamist terrorists set off a bomb in a bus terminal in Ecoland village, killing a child and wounding five others.
The Catholic Church in the Philippines is praying for the victims of the explosion that hit a city night market in Davao, southern Philippines.
Mr Ablan said the proclamation gives “due regard to fundamental and civil political rights” and is merely a stepped-up campaign of the police and the military to ensure the safety of the general public. “It’s a sad day for Davao and for the Philippines”.
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Duterte, Davao’s longtime mayor before he assumed the presidency in June, was in the region but had not issued any statement.
