The Philippine police are searching for four people after Friday’s bombing in the southern city of Davao that killed 14 people and spurred President Rodrigo Duterte to put the entire country under state of “lawlessness”.
Police are looking for two men and one woman as “persons of interests”, and another person that was seen talking to one of them, Chief Inspector Andrea dela Cerna, spokeswoman of Southern Mindanao Regional Police Office, said on Sunday. Police have interviewed eight witnesses and are not discounting the possibility that there could have been more than four people involved in the bombing, she said.
Duterte, who was at his official residence in Davao at the time of the bombing, has declared a nationwide state of lawless violence, allowing him to use the military to assist the police to fight crime and violence. National police chief Ronald dela Rosa said on Saturday that authorities are still trying to confirm media reports that Abu Sayyaf, an extremist Muslim group operating in the island of Mindanao, orchestrated the blast in the night market that injured 67 people.
“The bombing is a symbolic act,” independent political analyst Earl Parreno said on Sunday. “It’s a slap in the face for the president. The group behind it wanted to send a message to President Duterte that even in his hometown that he has declared safe and well protected they can stage a bombing.”
