(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte visited on Saturday (September 3) the hospitals where the wounded victims of the deadly blast in a night market in Davao City were being treated and assured their relatives that the government will cover all their medical expenses.
Duterte’s expression was that of concern, pain and extreme sadness as he consoled the relatives of the injured victims being treated at the San Pedro Hospital and Davao Medical Center.
In a video by RTVM, the President can be seen doing the rounds to check on the conditions of the victims of Friday night’s explosion at a packed market that killed at least 14 people and wounded dozens.
In one of the photos released by Malacanang, the President was so affected by the incident that he could be seen kissing one of the victims already covered in white blanket. The victim was apparently one of those who died while being treated at one of the hospitals in Davao City.
The blast late night on Friday (September 2) tore through the street market outside the high-end Marco Polo hotel, a frequent haunt of Duterte, who was in the southern city of Davao at the time but was not hurt.
He earlier visited a morgue and the blast site where the explosion occurred. The President’s expression of extreme sadness and pain was caught on camera as he was shown the blast victims inside the morgue.
Duterte has announced a “state of lawlessness” and ordered the police to set up check points, and step up the police and military presence to track down the perpetrators.
Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said more than 60 people were wounded in the blast and were sent to various hospitals in the city.
Regional police chief Manuel Guerlan said a ring of checkpoints was in place around the city’s exit points.
Duterte is hugely popular in Davao, having served as its mayor for more than 22 years before his stunning national election win in May, garnered from the popularity of a promised war on drugs.
His election has prompted a spike in drug-related killings, with more than 2,000 deaths since he took office on June 30, nearly half of them in police operations.
Davao is located in Mindanao, a large island beset by decades of Muslim insurgency. The region is also home to Abu Sayyaf, a rebel group loosely linked to Islamic State and notorious for making tens of millions of dollars from kidnappings. (with a Reuters report)
