The Philippine government has blamed the armed Abu Sayyaf group for a blast that killed at least 13 people in the home city of President Rodrigo Duterte, prompting him to declare a "state of lawless violence".
Duterte told reporters in Davao City on Saturday that he "may invite uniformed personnel to run the country according to my specifications".
He said police and the military will be authorised to conduct searches "in a bid to stop terrorism".
"This is not the first time that Davao has been sacrificed to the altar of violence," the president said, adding: "It's always connected with Abu Sayyaf before. They gave a warning. We know that."
"We were ready for this," Duterte said when asked if the attack constituted a failure of intelligence.
Interior minister Mike Sueno, earlier told local radio station DZRH that his office had information about an imminent Abu Sayyaf attack.
"Yes, we expected this already. Two or three days ago, we already have an intelligence (report) on this," Sueno said.
Another radio station also reported that Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Rami has confirmed that attack.
The blast took place on Friday night at a night market in Davao, 960km south of the capital, Manila.
The explosion occurred close to the high-end Marco Polo hotel that is popular with tourists and business people, city spokeswoman Catherine de la Rey told AFP news agency.
Regional police chief Manuel Guerlan told Reuters news agency that a ring of checkpoints had been thrown around the city's exit points.
Student John Rhyl L Sialmo told Al Jazeera that the explosion happened around 10:30pm local time (4:30 GMT).
"We were inside one of the university buildings when we heard the loud explosion," said Sialmo, a student at Ateneo de Davao University, located across the site of the blast.
"There were so many people, because it was a night market and also because it's a Friday," Sialmo said, adding that "the rescuers had to use improvised bandages on the victims".
A doctor from the Southern Philippine Medical Center in Davao City said that all those who died had "multiple shrapnel injuries".
"All of the wounds examined were shrapnel type on different parts of the body," D Leopoldo Vega told reporters in a news conference.
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