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. The bill has been with the Committee on National Defense and Security since February 2011.[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 1244; it has been pending in committee since August 2010.[2] In September 2012, the Philippines stated in their Article 7 report that it had no updated information on the status of congressional activity on an implementation law.[3]

On 14 September 2012, the Philippines provided its twelfth Article 7 report.[4] Its previous Article 7 report covered calendar year 2010. It has provided eleven previous reports.[5]

The Philippines participated in the Eleventh Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Phnom Penh in November–December 2011, 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. It has not joined Protocol V on explosive remnants of war.

Production, transfer, stockpiling, and use

In September 2012, the Philippines reported that it had destroyed a further 271 Claymore antipersonnel mines discovered during inspections at ammunition depots.[6] 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, almost all of which appear to be command-detonated improvised explosive devices (IEDs).[7] In December 2009, the Philippines told States Parties that all landmines and IEDs recovered from non-state armed groups (NSAGs) are destroyed immediately.[8] In September 2012, the Philippines reported that it had recovered and destroyed 63 improvised antipersonnel mines during operations.[9]

Non-state armed groups

In the past, at least four NSAGs have used antipersonnel mines or victim-activated IEDs: the New People’s Army (NPA), the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG). Five NSAGs, including the MILF, have formally pledged in writing not to use antipersonnel mines.[10] The government of the Philippines has engaged in ongoing peace talks with both the NPA and MILF during 2011 and the first half of 2012.

The Monitor could not identify any specific instances of use of antipersonnel mines (victim-activated explosive devices or booby-traps) by NSAGs during 2011. However, in January 2012 one child was killed and another injured in what media reports portrayed as a victim-activated explosion on the island of Sulu.[11] In February 2012, another civilian died while hunting after reportedly stepping on an explosive device in Zamboangadel Norte.[12]

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.[13]

The NPA continued to use command-detonated IEDs in 2011 and 2012, which continue to be referred to as “landmines” by Philippine authorities and the media. The NPA (the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, CPP) signed a Comprehensive Agreement to Respect Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) with the Philippine government in 1998.[14] 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 accuse the NPA of violating CARHRIHL by using command-detonated mines.[15] The NPA has previously asserted that it manufactures and uses only command-detonated weapons allowed under the Mine Ban Treaty and, in its view, the CARHRIHL.[16] In some cases, attacks with these weapons have killed or injured civilians.[17] In June 2012, the government raised the issue of landmine use during informal talks with the NPA/National Democratic Front in Oslo, specifying that in its view such use was a violation of the CARHRIHL.[18]

The Philippine Government and the CPP-NPA agreed to two ceasefires, one for 19 days in December 2010[19] and another for seven days in February 2011, in support of formal peace talks in Oslo.[20] A government official was reported to say that landmine use by the NPA would be on the agenda for the Oslo meeting.[21] The Philippine Campaign to Ban Landmines (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.[22]

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 from 1 June 2010 to 21 February 2011 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.[23] 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.[24] Other incidents involving IEDs were attributed to political rivalry and extortionists.

In September 2012, it was reported that the MILF placed an order within their code of conduct to start actively fulfilling the obligations to ban possession, use or production of antipersonnel mines or victim-activated explosive devices. Also in September 2012, Geneva Call held a workshop on the Deed of Commitment at the Training Center of the Bangsamoro Leadership and Management Institute.[25]

The government of the Philippines and the MILF signed guidelines to allow the PCBL and Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD) to engage in clearance to support community rehabilitation in conflict areas in Mindanao in May 2010.[26] In 2011 and early 2012, the PCBL provided briefings regarding clearance to the entities involved in the peace process in Mindanao.[27]

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 and for two factions of the Revolutionary Workers Party of the Philippines/Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayo Brigade.[28]

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, the latest of which covers 2009, that it has any mined areas containing antipersonnel mines.[1] However, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) continue to claim that the NPA uses antipersonnel mines.[2]

The NPA has denied using mines, but acknowledges that it continues to use “command-detonated explosives” in attacks on government security forces. A 2012 statement by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) Central Committee urges the NPA to use landmines “to impede enemy troop movement or harass any encamped force” and encourages them to “produce explosives from unexploded munitions of the enemy.”[3] Many incidents attributed to the NPA, although often reported as landmine attacks, appear to involve IEDs.[4]

Explosive remnants of war

The Philippines has UXO contamination from recent conflicts between the government and non-state armed groups, mainly on the southern island of Mindanao, causing civilian and military casualties. It also contends with large amounts of UXO and abandoned explosive ordnance (AXO), including chemical weapons that date back to World War II.

The AFP says that 30% of total ordnance in Mindanao is UXO. Fighting between armed groups associated with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Muslim Barangay, Guindulungan, Maguindanao, in December 2010 may have resulted in more UXO contamination in the area (see above).[5]

Some 4,000 World War II-era shells and other explosive items were collected for destruction in March (see Mine Action Program below). In other discoveries, at least 21 artillery shells were discovered in a warehouse in Binondo, Manila, in February 2012.[6] Other bombs were found in Muntinlupa City in Manila, in Calapan City in Mindoro, Kawit in Cebu City, and Surigao del Norte.[7]

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 Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the police.

In March 2011, the Philippines and the US conducted a “Joint Explosive Ordnance Disposal Exercise” in which some 4,000 World War II-era artillery shells and other ageing ordnance, including aircraft bombs, land and sea mines, and depth charges, were collected from Caballo Island in Manila Bay and shipped to a military gunnery range in Tarlac. These were destroyed by a series of detonations, the last of them initiated by President Benigno Aquino himself. The Philippine Navy said ordnance with a total explosive weight of 364,348 lb (nearly 163 tons) had been destroyed in the exercise, which involved explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) teams of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Philippine National Police and the Coast Guard. President Aquino reportedly said the threat posed by the ordnance on Caballo Island had represented one of the major problems facing his administration.[8]

Safety of demining personnel

At least three EOD personnel from the Philippine National Police’s Special Action Force were killed in Taguig City after a mortar shell they had taken to a welding shop to be defused reportedly exploded. Another EOD team member and eight others were reported injured.[9]

Casualties Overview

In 2011, the Monitor identified 34 casualties from explosive remnants of war (ERW) and victim-activated improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in the Philippines.[1] All casualties were male where the sex of the casualty was known.[2] The majority (19) were civilians, including 14 children. Fifteen members of the security forces were injured by victim-activated IEDs.

The 2011 data represents an increase from the single casualty identified in 2010[3] and the 16 casualties recorded in 2009. This increase can be attributed in part to clearer reporting of device types and improved efforts to differentiate incidents caused by victim-activated and command-activated devices in 2011.

In addition to these casualties, the Monitor identified 54 casualties (10 killed, 44 injured) 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.

Since 1999, 496 casualties have been identified from mines, ERW, and victim-activated IEDs (180 killed; 315 injured; one of unknown status).[4]

Victim Assistance

At least 315 mine/ERW survivors have been identified through media monitoring.[5]

According to the government’s National Council on Disability Affairs (NCDA), there was “no specific program or even database for mine casualties, victims or survivors, because mine warfare is not common in the Philippines.”[6] In 2011, the House of Representatives established a special Committee on People with Disabilities with authority over all issues related to policies to protect and promote the rights of persons with disabilities. [7]

During 2011, the Davao Jubilee Rehabilitation Center established a referral and follow-up system for amputees working with local authorities to improve access to physical rehabilitation services. The ICRC continued to support the Davao Center as the only affordable service provider on Mindanao Island.[8] The ICRC also provided medical supplies and equipment to 24 hospitals in Mindanao to increase their capacities to treat emergency cases, including for mine/ERW casualties and those wounded by other weapons.[9]

The law prohibited discrimination against persons with disabilities and provided for equal access for persons with disabilities to all public buildings, but implementation was ineffective and many physical barriers remained.[10]

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

Support for Mine Action

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 and other non-state armed groups, mainly in Mindanao. The extent to which it is also affected by mines is unclear.[1]

Since 2009, the Philippines has received a small amount of international support. In 2009, the United States contributed US$313,375 towards victim assistance activities.[2] In 2010, there was no international support, while, in 2011, Belgium contributed €8,250 (US$11,493) to Geneva Call for work in the Philippines.[3]