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.

The Philippine Congress held the first hearing on the Philippine Landmine Bill in March 2009, and the government told other States Parties in May 2009 that it hoped the law would pass before national elections in May 2010.[1]  But the Congress subsequently set aside the bill because of other priorities, and the government reported that the bill “remained at the Technical Working Group level.”[2]  Previous bills introduced in the Congress since 2000 were never called for public hearing and abandoned for other priorities.[3]

The Philippines submitted an annual Article 7 transparency report on 16 April 2010, covering calendar year 2009.  It did not report in 2009 or 2008, but provided eight previous reports.[4]

The Philippines participated in the Second Review Conference of the Mine Ban Treaty in Cartagena, Colombia in November–December 2009, where it made a statement during the high level segment, as well as on stockpile destruction.[5]  It was named co-rapporteur of the Standing Committee on Stockpile Destruction for the next year, and will become co-chair at the Tenth Meeting of States Parties in November 2010.

On 5 May 2010, negotiators in the government of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace process signed an agreement to undertake mine action to allow community rehabilitation in areas of recent conflict in Mindanao. The cooperation agreement was proposed by the Philippine Campaign to Ban Landmines (PCBL).[6]

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 did not retain 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 within the country.

Media reports regularly state that authorities have recovered landmines during operations against insurgents.[7] 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.[8]

The AFP and the Philippine National Police annually provide the 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.[9]

Non-state armed groups

In the past, at least three rebel groups have used antipersonnel mines or victim-activated IEDs: New People’s Army (NPA), MILF, and Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG). Five rebel groups, including the MILF, have formally pledged in writing not to use antipersonnel mines.[10]

Landmine and Cluster Munition 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 2009).  In its Article 7 report covering 2009, the Philippines reports 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.[11]

Insurgent groups continued to use command-detonated IEDs in 2009 and 2010. IEDs are frequently referred to as “landmines” by authorities and by the Philippine media. In particular, authorities frequently refer to command-detonated improvised Claymore-type directional fragmentation weapons as “antipersonnel mines.”[12]

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.[13] 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.

The NPA asserts that it manufactures and uses only command-detonated weapons allowed under the Mine Ban Treaty and, in its view, the CARHRIHL.[14] 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.[15]

In November 2009, the Swiss NGO Geneva Call organized a fact-finding mission to investigate allegations of use of antipersonnel mines by the MILF in Mindanao from August 2008 to May 2009.  The MILF signed the Geneva Call Deed of Commitment banning use of antipersonnel mines in 2000. The investigation was agreed to, and facilitated by, both the government of the Philippines and the MILF.  According to Geneva Call, “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.”[16]

According to a news account, in February 2010 two soldiers were killed and another injured when “they tripped on the mine” during efforts to find people kidnapped by the ASG.[17]  There were media reports of at least two other incidents alleging use of mines by the ASG in this reporting period, but Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor was not able to determine if these incidents involved victim-activated explosive devices. In June 2009, it was reported that mines planted by the ASG slowed down the rescue of a Red Cross worker kidnapped by the ASG.[18]  In March 2010, it was reported that four soldiers were injured when they “accidentally tripped on a bomb fashioned out as a landmine” while pursuing the ASG in Basilan.[19] In addition, some instances of vehicle-activated mines were attributed to the ASG in 2009 and 2010.[20]