Philippines’ President Rodrigo Duterte declared on Saturday a “state of lawlessness” in the country after an explosion in a market killed 14 people in his home city while he was on a regular weekend visit there.
Duterte, the crime-busting mayor of Davao City for more than two decades, said the blast late on Friday outside a high-end hotel intensified what was an “extraordinary time” in the Philippines, and security forces would redouble efforts to tackle crime, drugs and insurgency.
“I must declare a state of lawless violence in this country, it’s not martial law,” Duterte told a phalanx of reporters on a Davao street at daybreak after visiting the blast site.
“It’s not martial law until it’s a threat against the people and against the nation … I have this duty to protect this country.”
Duterte was at a meeting some 12 km (7.5 miles) away from downtown Davao when the explosion occurred.
It came as the uncompromising president wages war with just about anyone from drugs kingpins and street dealers to Islamist rebels and corrupt bureaucrats, scoring big points in opinion polls, but at a risk of making powerful enemies.
There was no claim of responsibility though suspicion centered on an Islamic State-linked militant group.
Police said 67 people were wounded in addition to the 14 dead.
Police have yet to disclose details of their initial investigation, but Davao Mayor Sarah Duterte – the president’s daughter – said in a television interview it was a bomb.
Police and military promised to implement the nationwide “state of lawlessness”, although there appeared to be confusion about what that actually entailed.
Duterte’s office said it was “rooted” in an article of the constitution that puts the president in charge of the armed forces. Several officials said the declaration meant troops would assist police in anti-crime and anti-terror operations.
