Philippines says 4 people being sought for deadly blast

Davao City was on high alert, with police checkpoints set up throughout the city, officials said.

“We have copies of the CCTV (closed-circuit television), we have eight possible witnesses but we have named no one (as suspects)”, she told AFP.

The Catholic Church in the Philippines is praying for the victims of the explosion that hit a city night market in Davao, southern Philippines. Fifteen of the injured were in critical condition, CNN Philippines reported, citing Southern Philippines Medical Center director Leopoldo Vega.

Duterte was not near the scene of the blast when it happened. “That is the price of being in a democratic state”, he said, urging people to remain calm and vigilant.

Senior Superintendent Michael John Dubria told reporters the man had gone for a massage in the market and left the bag in that area.

“We are not new to this kind”.

“But this is not the first time that Davao City has been sacrificed in the altar of violence”.

The Abu Sayyaf militant group was responsible for a bomb attack in the home city of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte which killed at least 14 people, the government has said.

“We have always been ready for this”.

“I am really scared to go out”, she said. The group pledged allegiance to Daesh (or ISIS), but any direct collaboration between Abu Sayyaf and Daesh has not yet been determined.

While Davao itself is safe, it is in the region of Mindanao, a southern island province beset by decades of Muslim militancy.

Medialdea was speaking of the recent escape of members of the local terrorist Maute group from a Lanao del Sur prison, the beheading of Abu Sayyaf hostages, and the deadly explosion in Davao City last Friday.

Arroyo said Duterte is in the best position to declare a state of lawlessness to crush any threat to the country’s peace and order.

Duterte added that the “state of lawlessness” did not constitute martial law, though it does authorize security forces to conduct searches through the country.

Medialdea earlier said that the proclamation has no limit under the Constitution, contrary to martial law which has a 60-day limit.

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.

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