In this photo released by Malacanang Palace Presidential Communications Operations Office Presidential Photographers Division, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, right, comforts a victim outside a hospital where people injured in Friday’s explosion at a night market were brought in in Davao city, his hometown, Saturday, Sept. 3, 2016 in southern Philippines. Duterte declared a nationwide “state of lawlessness” Saturday after suspected Abu Sayyaf extremists detonated a bomb at the market. (Kiwi Bulaclac/Malacanang Palace Presidential Communications Operations Office Presidential Photographers Division via AP)
DAVAO CITY—The explosion that hit his hometown on Friday night has prompted President Duterte to cancel his official visit to Brunei on Sept. 4 and 5, which would have been his first foreign trip as head of state.
Malacañang announced the cancellation of the working visit on Saturday morning, hours after Mr. Duterte declared a “state of lawlessness” in the entire country, which his security adviser said gave the military extra powers to conduct law enforcement operations normally done only by the police.
An improvised explosive device tore through a night market in this city on Friday, killing at least 14 people and leaving another 67 injured.
Mr. Duterte, who was in Davao at the time of the bombing, visited the blast site and has been monitoring the situation there with his cabinet and top security officials.
He was initially scheduled to visit Bandar Seri Begawan as part of an inaugural trip to neighboring countries.
He is still set to fly to Laos on Tuesday for a regional summit and to Indonesia on Thursday for a working visit, Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The President will attend the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in the Laos capital of Vientiane, where he will accept the Philippines’ chairmanship of the regional bloc for 2017.
He is also scheduled to meet with nine heads of state there.
‘Attend Asean summit’
Sen. Ralph Recto, in an e-mailed statement, said that while he had backed President Duterte’s decision to scrap his trip to Brunei because of the night market explosion, the President should attend the Asean leaders’ summit in Laos.
“Canceling it might lead to the international impression that terrorists have succeeded in grounding the Philippine leader,” Recto said.
He said Duterte should pursue his Laos trip because he would be “heeding his own call that terrorism should not disrupt our daily lives.”
Chief Supt. Manuel Gaerlan, the Southern Mindanao police chief, said the explosion—as the President had said—should make the public more vigilant but it should not be a cause to forego their daily routine.
Recto said the cancellation of the President’s trip to Laos would also likely be seized by terrorists as a free publicity so they can “brag that they have effectively detained the President.”
“We need him there to assure the world, especially investors, tourists and businessmen, that while we have been hit by terrorism, government is on top of the situation and everything is under control,” he said.
“The best place to make comforting statements and correct disinformation is where the international media will descend, said.
Mary Jane Veloso case
Mr. Duterte earlier said he was hoping he could do something for Mary Jane Veloso, who was convicted for drug trafficking and sentenced to death for smuggling heroin into Indonesia in 2010, when he visits the country.
Veloso has been spared from execution after being granted a last-minute reprieve on April 29, 2015. This came after the surrender of her recruiters Kristina Sergio and her partner Julius Lacanilao in the Philippines.
Indonesian authorities have said Veloso has been spared in honor of its commitment to respect the Philippines’ legal processes. She is expected to testify at the human trafficking case against her recruiters.
Veloso’s lawyers are hoping that the government would appeal for clemency for her based on humanitarian grounds. With a report from AFP