Policy

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

The Department of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines has been engaged in consultations with various stakeholders on the matter of ratification of the Convention on Cluster Munitions since 2009. In April 2014, a Department of Foreign Affairs official informed the Philippine Campaign Against Cluster Munitions that it has “continued its advocacy and awareness-raising activities among other government agencies and concerned stakeholders with regard to the need for the ratification” of the ban convention.[1] Officials have acknowledged that the ratification process lacks urgency and momentum.[2]

The Philippines actively participated in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions and sought the most comprehensive treaty possible.[3]

Despite not ratifying, the Philippines has participated in every annual Meeting of States Parties of the convention, including the Fourth Meeting of States Parties in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013. The Philippines has attended every intersessional meeting of the convention in Geneva, including those held in April 2014.

The Philippines is not known to have made a public statement condemning Syria’s use of cluster munitions.

The Philippine Campaign Against Cluster Munitions is working for ratification of the Convention on Cluster Munitions and discussed the need for ratification with representatives from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Department of National Defense, Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine Commission on Human Rights, and the National Committee on International Humanitarian Law during 2013 and the first half of 2014. The campaign participated in a “multi-stakeholder training” on international humanitarian law held by the DFA in Manila on 8–10 August 2013.[4]

The Philippines is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Interpretive issues

The Philippines has yet to provide 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.”[5]

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

The Philippines has stated several times that it has not used, produced, stockpiled, or supplied cluster munitions.[6] In September 2011, the Philippines said that its armed forces have a standing directive that cluster munitions cannot be included as operational requirements.[7]

In April 2013, the demining NGO Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (Fondation Suisse de Deminage) received an unexploded nine-kilogram M41A1 fragmentation bomb that the Philippine Army had cleared from a construction site at Lanang in Davao City.[8] The AN-M1A1 cluster adaptor enabled six M41A1 fragmentation bombs to be deployed at the same time, making the weapon similar in function to a modern-day cluster munition.

In March 2014, a Ministry of Defense official informed the Philippine campaign that the AFM-M3 cluster bomb unit was made in an experimental stage in the 1990s by the Philippine Air Force.[9]