Rody warns of another bombing in Mindanao

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – There’s no escaping terrorism, President Duterte said as he warned of another bomb attack in Mindanao similar to the one that killed 15 people in a night market in this city on Sept. 2.

“There will be another explosion, not in Davao but in another area in Mindanao,” Duterte said last night during ceremonies wherein he handed over financial assistance to victims of the night market attack.

 He said younger generations of terrorists, pledging allegiance to the Islamic State, are now staging attacks in Mindanao.

“They are the young ones who have already sworn allegiance to the ISIS,” he said.

Last Sunday, he asked for more time to establish “law and order” in a country where “there are simply too many gangsters and terrorists.”

“I cannot tell you now, but we are trying our very best to put order in this country. We are wracked with so many problems: kidnapping in the south; terrorism; drugs, which is really pulling us down; and I can say that we would need time to put everything in order,” Duterte said after receiving Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad at the Matina Enclaves Residences here after the latter’s release by his Abu Sayyaf captors last Saturday.

The Abu Sayyaf also freed an Indonesian and two Filipino captives Sunday night in Panglima Estino town, authorities said.

The President cited the explosion in New York Sunday night to underscore what he believed was the pervasiveness of terror.

“But you know I said terrorism is all over. New York just blew up, there is no escape from terrorism,” he said, adding that what the world is witnessing is a clash between civilization and terror.

“That is the next great battle of the century – terrorism and civilization. Those who believe in civilization, those who believe – maybe to spell the end of the planet,” the President said.

“Hopefully, in the fullness of God’s time, we would be able to establish really law and order in this country. There are simply too many gangsters and terrorists, simply too many battles here and there,” he said.

The President earlier declared a nationwide state of lawlessness following the deadly blast at the Roxas night market in Davao City last Sept. 2. The attack killed 15 people and wounded 70 others.

Duterte met last night with at least 48 of the wounded and their families and promised them unspecified financial assistance. Among those he met was Dennis Larida who lost his wife and young son to the attack.

The President has been telling members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines of the need to brace for more terror attacks in his visits to various military camps across the country.

“I’m just saying that the ultimate warrior in the Constitution – to protect the people – is the Armed Forces of the Philippines,” the President said in one of his visits to the military camps.

Earlier, he said the Abu Sayyaf is shifting its focus from kidnap-for-ransom to establishing a “caliphate” in Mindanao.

“The problem is, they’re not negotiating anymore on the basis of what you can give them, like schools – it’s caliphate or nothing,” he said.

‘Travails are over’

Meeting a gaunt and haggard Sekkingstad, Duterte promised to arrest or eliminate the Norwegian’s kidnappers. “Your travails in life are over,” he told Sekkingstad.

Norwegian Ambassador Erik Forner and his staff reportedly whisked Sekkingstad off on a flight to Manila, without allowing any member of his Filipino family to talk to him. Sekkingstad is married to a Filipina.

“And I assure you, and I said, that when the time comes, I will inform you. I will just inform you that we have been able to catch up with them,” the President said.

“Until such time that we get the – the one true justice we will give them if that is what they want,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Sulu Provincial Police reported that Indonesian Herman Bin Manggak, 38, and two Filipinos were freed some 30 minutes apart in Barangay Tiptipon, Panglima Estino town around 10 p.m. Sunday. - Roel Pareño, Cecille Suerte Felipe