Duterte: PH law enforcers are capable of investigating the blast incident

From the Philippine News Agency (Sep 3): Duterte: PH law enforcers are capable of investigating the blast incident

With the latest explosion that rocked Davao, killing 14 people and injuring scores of innocent civilians, President Rodrigo Duterte said local lawmen are capable of investigating the incident, and there is no need for other countries to meddle.

“The police of the Republic of the Philippines and the military, the Armed Forces of the country are capable of doing the investigation and doing it correctly,” the President told reporters early morning on Saturday at the ground-zero of the explosion.

‘There’s a crime committed, murder and we will proceed accordingly. We will investigate and in the fullness of God’s time, we may be able to solve the problem.”

He said “the incident is a police matter,” adding “it’s not an isolated case in the sense that there was the grenade throwing in Cotabato City and the assault on so many places.”

President Duterte added “we are not new to this kind. It is always connected with the Abu Sayyaf or in Central Mindanao. But this is not the first time that Davao City has been sacrificed in the altar of violence.”

During an ambush interview at the blast site in Roxas St., President Rodrigo Duterte reminded the public of his previous statement regarding possible reprisals by the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) on the intensified military operations in Sulu.

“We have always been ready for this. I warned, I remember warning everybody that there could be a reprisal because of the pressure there in Sulu which is going on. At nagbigay talaga sila ng warning. We know that but I said this is not a fascist state. I cannot control the movements of the citizens of the city and every Filipino of the country has the right to enter and leave Davao. It’s very porous. It’s unfortunate that this is a democracy and we cannot frisk anybody for just any reason,” the President said.

The explosion that killed 14 people and injured 71 others has placed Davao City currently under a state of lockdown with increased police and military visibility.

“Yes of course, Davao is safe. There is no criminality except terrorism which I’ve been harping all along that the next horizon. I remember giving it sa like 3 to 7 years and we will have a narco politics and of course we have to confront the ugly head of terrorism”, the President said.

President Duterte said there was no failure of intelligence pertaining to this incident. Sporadic terrorist attacks have already occurred in other parts of the region including the grenade blast in Cotabato and the Maute jail raid in Lanao del Sur. The President considers it fortunate that the government can leave out the New Peoples Army (NPA) in their investigations so the investigation will be narrowed down to just a few suspects or groups.

Although there are leads as to what type of explosive device was used, the President refused to divulge any more details pertaining to the case.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=919926