Commitment to the Mine Ban Treaty

Policy

The Republic of the Philippines signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 15 February 2000, becoming a State Party on 1 August 2000.

In February 2011, the “Act Providing for a Total Ban on Anti-Personnel Landmines, for Other Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Landmines, Booby-Traps And Other Devices, For The Creation of a Philippine Coordinating Committee on Landmines, and for Related Purposes” was re-filed in Congress as House Bill 04159 by Rep. Walden Bello of the Akbayan Party, pending first reading.[1] The bill was also filed in the Philippine Senate on 5 July 2010 by Gregorio B. Honasan II and by Manny B. Villar Jr. on 12 July 2010 as SBN 111 and SBN 1244 but has not moved since then.[2]

As of October 2011, the Philippines had not submitted its annual Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report due 30 April 2011. Its previous Article 7 report covered calendar year 2009. It did not submit a report in 2009 or 2008, but provided eight previous reports.[3]

The Philippines participated in the Tenth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Geneva in November–December 2010, where it made a statement on cooperation and assistance. The Philippines also became the co-chair of the Standing Committee on Stockpile Destruction in 2011.

The Philippines is a State Party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and its Amended Protocol II on landmines.

Production, transfer, stockpiling, and use

The Philippines reports that it has never produced or exported antipersonnel mines. It destroyed its entire stockpile of antipersonnel mines—all Claymore-type mines—in 1998. It has not retained any live mines for training purposes. The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has stated that it has never used antipersonnel mines to combat insurgency groups within the country.

Media reports regularly state that authorities have recovered landmines during operations against insurgents.[4] In December 2009, the Philippines told States Parties that all landmines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) recovered from non-state armed groups (NSAGs) are destroyed immediately.[5] The AFP and the Philippine National Police annually provide the Philippine Campaign to Ban Landmines (PCBL) with data on incidents in which explosive weapons have been used, including information on device type, seizures and recoveries, the number and names of casualties, and whether they were killed or injured.[6]

Non-state armed groups

In the past, at least three rebel groups have used antipersonnel mines or victim-activated IEDs: the New People’s Army (NPA), the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), and the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG). Five rebel groups, including the MILF, have formally pledged in writing not to use antipersonnel mines.[7]

The Monitor could not identify any specific instances of use of antipersonnel mines (victim-activated explosive devices or booby-traps) by NSAGs during the reporting period (since May 2010). In its previous Article 7 report covering 2009, the Philippines reported that the AFP investigated “various instances of use of Anti-Personnel Mines by Armed Non-State Actors” in 2009, but the report does not comment on any findings.[8]

Insurgent groups continued to use command-detonated IEDs in 2010 and 2011. IEDs are frequently referred to as “landmines” by Philippine authorities and media. In particular, authorities frequently refer to command-detonated improvised Claymore-type directional fragmentation weapons as “antipersonnel mines.”[9] Geneva Call, a Swiss-based NGO, organized a workshop for Mindanao-based journalists to improve accuracy in reporting landmines and landmine incidents.[10]

The NPA, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, signed a Comprehensive Agreement to Respect Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) with the Philippine government in 1998.[11] The CARHRIHL commits both parties to protect the civilian population by not violating the “right not to be subjected to...the use of landmines,” but does not define landmine.

Government and AFP officials have consistently accused the NPA of violating CARHRIHL by using command-detonated mines.[12] The NPA asserts that it manufactures and uses only command-detonated weapons allowed under the Mine Ban Treaty and, in its view, the CARHRIHL.[13] In some cases, attacks with these weapons have killed or injured civilians, and there was one report in 2010 of the NPA employing a child combatant to use such mines.[14]

The Philippine Government and the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)-NPA agreed to two ceasefires, one for 19 days in December 2010[15] and another for seven days in February 2011, in support of formal peace talks in Oslo.[16] A government official was reported to say that landmine use by the NPA would be on the agenda for the Oslo meeting.[17] The PCBL welcomed the government plan to take up the contentious issue on the use of landmines when its peace panel would meet with them in Oslo.[18]

IEDs as well as the components and explosives for their manufacture, such as detonating cord and wire, Claymore canisters, gins of super dyne explosive bombs, and blasting caps, were all recovered in Kalinga, Laguna, Rizal, Batangas, Aurora, Quezon, Oriental Mindoro, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Masbate Luzon, Samar, Eastern Samar, Capiz, Iloilo in the Visayas, Davao City, Davao Oriental, Surigao del Sur, Agusan del Sur, Bukidnon, Compostela Valley, and Misamis Occidental from 1 June 2010 to 21 February 2011.[19] These IEDs and their components have been attributed to the NPA. The AFP also reported the recovery of components for explosives from the MNLF in Sulu in May 2010. [20] Other incidents involving IEDs were attributed to political rivalry and extortionists.

In March 2010, Geneva Call issued a report on allegations of antipersonnel mine use by the MILF, which signed the Geneva Call Deed of Commitment banning use of antipersonnel mines in 2000. According to the report, “The mission team found that AP [antipersonnel] mines had indeed been used, but was not able to identify the perpetrators; however it was considered that MILF forces may have been involved in some of these incidents.”[21] The MILF agreed to cooperate with Geneva Call.[22] The government of the Philippines and the MILF signed guidelines to allow the PCBL and Foundation Suisse de Deminage (FSD) to engage in clearance to support community rehabilitation in conflict areas in Mindanao in May 2010.[23]

Geneva Call has also conducted trainings to clarify the scope of the Deed of Commitment for members of the Revolutionary Workers Party of Mindanao/Revolutionary Peoples’ Army (RPM-M/RPA) and for two factions of the Revolutionary Workers Party of the Philippines/ Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayo Brigade (RPM-P/RPA-ABB).[24]

Commitment to the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Policy

The Republic of the Philippines signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008.

In November 2010, the Philippines stated that its ratification process was “currently undergoing required national procedures.”[1] Various government agencies are believed to be discussing the ratification package before it is submitted for formal approval. No timetable is available for when ratification is likely to be completed.

Previously, in June 2010, the Philippines stated that it hoped to complete ratification by the First Meeting of States Parties in November 2010.[2]

The Philippines actively participated in the Oslo Process that created the convention and sought  the most comprehensive convention possible.[3] The Philippines has continued to engage in the work of the convention. It participated in the First Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Vientiane, Lao PDR in November 2010, where it gave an update on ratification and expressed support for universalization of the Convention.[4] The Philippines did not attend the first intersessional meetings of the convention in Geneva in June 2011.

The Philippine Campaign Against Cluster Munitions is working for ratification of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[5]

The Philippines is a party to the Mine Ban Treaty.

Interpretive issues

The Philippines has not yet made known its views on certain important issues related to interpretation and implementation of the convention, including the prohibition on transit, the prohibition on foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions, the prohibition on investment in production of cluster munitions, and the need for retention of cluster munitions and submunitions for training and development purposes.

On the prohibition on assistance, the Philippines has stated that it “has no intention to assist, encourage or induce any state, group or individual to engage in any of the prohibited activities.”[6]

Convention on Conventional Weapons

It is also a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), but has not ratified CCW Protocol V on explosive remnants of war. Jesus Ricardo S. “Gary” Domingo of the Philippines chaired the CCW Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on cluster munitions in 2010 and 2011, receiving praise for his unconventional (but to date unsuccessful) efforts to secure agreement.[7]

The Philippines did not make any CCW statements in its national capacity in 2010 and the first half of 2011 to express its views on the draft chair’s text under consideration.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

The Philippines has stated several times that it has not used, produced, stockpiled, or supplied cluster munitions.[8] In November 2010, the Philippines said that, in compliance with the convention, its armed forces have a standing directive that cluster munitions cannot be included as operational requirements.[9]

Contamination and Impact

The Philippines is affected by explosive remnants of war (ERW), especially unexploded ordnance (UXO), as a result of long-running, low-level insurgencies by the New People’s Army (NPA) and other non-state armed groups, mainly in Mindanao. The extent to which it is also affected by mines is unclear.

Mines

The Philippines has consistently denied in its Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 reports that it has any mined areas containing antipersonnel mines and says that whenever mines or improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are found they are immediately removed. However, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) have claimed that the NPA continued to use antipersonnel mines in 2010.[1] Most incidents attributed to the NPA involved IEDs. The NPA has denied using mines, but acknowledges that it continues to use “command-detonated explosives” in attacks on government security forces.[2] 

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in 2008 signed the “Rebel Group Declaration of Adherence to International Humanitarian Law on Landmines” which also committed it to not use antipersonnel mines.[3] A Geneva Call verification mission in November 2009 found there were “substantial grounds for concluding that there may have been” MILF involvement in two series of incidents in Mindanao in 2008–2009 although it found no evidence that MILF leaders knew of, or condoned, potential antipersonnel mine use.[4]

Explosive remnants of war

Mindanao is affected mainly by UXO resulting from conflict between the government and Muslim rebels that dates back more than 30 years but continues to cause casualties. A 16-year-old farm boy was reportedly wounded by UXO in Pikit, North Cotabato, on 20 December 2010[5] and four children were injured, three of them seriously, when an UXO exploded at an evacuation site in Barangay Muslim, Guindulungan, Maguindanao, on 28 January 2011.[6]

The AFP says that 30% of total ordnance in Mindanao is UXO, and a similar percentage of MILF ordnance may remain as UXO in the area. Fighting between armed groups associated with the MILF in Barangay Muslim, Guindulungan, Maguindanao in December 2010 may have resulted in more UXO contamination in the area (see above).[7] Mindanao also has some ERW remaining from World War II; for example, a bomb from that era was found in the Rio Grande de Mindanao in Cotabato in January 2010. [8]

Mine Action Program

The Philippines has no formal program for dealing with mines, IEDs, or ERW. Clearance has been conducted by a range of government actors, including the AFP and the police. 

The Philippine National Police (PNP) reported in 2007 it had deployed five explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) technicians in each of Mindanao’s 11 provinces to deal with bomb attacks.[9] In addition, the army, navy, air force, and the PNP each have EOD units deployed in areas of armed conflict such as Jolo and Cotabato to dispose of IEDs and UXO after armed hostilities occur.[10]

For example, the AFP’s Office of Civil Defense reported in August 2008 that it conducted mine clearance operations in Aleosan, North Cotabato, and Mindanao before allowing people displaced by war to return home.

Government negotiators and the MILF agreed in May 2010 to implement guidelines that provide for clearance of mines and UXO in conflict-affected areas of Mindanao by the Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD).[11] The agreement provided the basis for FSD in partnership with the Philippine Campaign to Ban Landmines to develop a proposal for clearance and to approach donors.[12]

Other Risk Reduction Measures

The AFP says it conducts EOD training and bomb threat prevention seminars every year to military and civilian personnel as part of a risk education program.[13] In April 2011, PNP and United States EOD experts provided training for police in southern Mindanao in explosive ordnance reconnaissance and response, including marking suspected hazards.[14]

Casualties Overview

In 2010, the Monitor identified one explosive remnants of war (ERW) casualty. In December, a 16-year-old boy was wounded by an ERW while farming in Pikit, North Cotabato.[1] The 2010 data represented a significant decrease from the 16 casualties identified in 2009.[2]

The decrease in the number of recorded casualties from 2009 can be attributed in part to clearer reporting of device types and improved efforts to separate incidents caused by command-activated devices in 2010. It also confirms a decreased use of victim-activated devices by non-state armed groups identified in 2010.[3]

In addition to this ERW casualty, the Monitor identified 164 casualties in 26 incidents involving suspected command-detonated devices. Most of these incidents resulted in casualties among security forces, either from the explosion itself or subsequent small arms fire, giving a strong indication that these were ambushes targeting soldiers and police forces. The remaining incidents resulting in civilian casualties were attributed to political rivalry or criminal gangs using explosive devices detonated by remote control.[4]

Since 1999, 462 casualties have been identified from mines, ERW, and victim-activated improvised explosive devices (177 killed; 284 injured; one of unknown status).[5]

Victim Assistance

At least 284 mine/ERW survivors have been identified through media monitoring.[6]

Victim assistance coordination[7]

The Philippines has no specific coordination or plans for mine/ERW victim assistance.  According to the government’s NCDA, there was “no specific program or even database for mine casualties, victims or survivors, because mine warfare is not common in the Philippines.”[8]

Survivor inclusion

While there were no survivors directly involved in the coordination and implementation of disability services, the president of the Veterans Foundation of the Philippines, a body that includes military survivors, was a member of the NCDA’s governing board.[9]

Service accessibility and effectiveness

There were no significant changes to the overall availability or quality of services and assistance to mine/ERW survivors in 2010. The distance that survivors had to travel from remote conflict areas to access services was the greatest obstacle to receiving care.[10]

The existing legal framework outlined the rights of persons with disabilities but, due to weak implementation of legislation and lack of sufficient government funding, these remained largely ineffective.[11]

The Philippines ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on 15 April 2008.

In 2010, the Philippines did not report any contributions to its mine action program, nor did any donors report international contributions towards mine action in the Philippines.

In 2009, the United States was Philippines’ sole international mine action donor, contributing US$313,375 towards victim assistance activities.[1]