Table of Contents

Country Reports

LM Report 2006

Philippines

Key developments since May 2005: The rebel New People’s Army stepped up its use of command-detonated improvised antivehicle mines, resulting in many more casualties. Landmine Monitor media analysis found 145 mine/IED casualties reported in 2005, a nearly 300 percent increase on the 47 casualties reported in 2004. The Armed Forces of the Philippines reported seizures of antipersonnel and antivehicle mines from the NPA. The Moro National Liberation Front and the Abu Sayyaf Group continued to plant antivehicle mines in their ongoing battles with the army.

Mine Ban Policy

The Republic of the Philippines signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997, ratified it on 15 February 2000, and the treaty entered into force on 1 August 2000. The Philippines has yet to enact domestic legislation to implement the treaty, although four bills have been introduced in the Philippine Congress since 2001. The latest bill, filed in the 13th Congress by Senator Juan M. Flavier in November 2004, was referred to the Committee on National Defense and Security headed by Senator Rodolfo Biazon, but has not moved since.^[1] The landmine bill is not a priority for congress, especially after President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared a state of national emergency in February 2006.

As of 1 June, the Philippines had not submitted its annual updated Article 7 transparency report, due 30 April 2006. It has submitted six previous reports.^[2]

The Philippine government participated in the Sixth Meeting of States Parties in Zagreb, Croatia in November-December 2005. The Philippines attended the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in Geneva in May 2006, after missing the three previous sessions in 2004 and 2005. The Philippines has not engaged in the extensive discussions that States Parties have had on matters of interpretation and implementation related to Articles 1, 2 and 3. Thus, it has not made known its views on issues related to joint military operations with non-States Parties, foreign stockpiling and transit of antipersonnel mines, antivehicle mines with sensitive fuzes or antihandling devices, and the permissible number of mines retained for training.

The Philippines is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its Amended Protocol II on landmines. It attended the Seventh Annual Conference of States Parties to the protocol in November 2005, but did not submit an annual Article 13 national report.

The Philippine Campaign to Ban Landmines (PCBL) has been actively involved in monitoring the government’s implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty, promoting the landmine bill and engaging non-state armed groups in a landmine ban. The PCBL also called on the government to ratify CCW Protocol V on Explosive Remnants of War. In the wake of numerous landmine incidents in November 2005, the PCBL issued a report on the landmine situation in the Philippines and a General Statement and Calls on the Landmines Issue in the Philippines for 2006.^[3] On 29 April 2006, the PCBL held a workshop for 108 young people in San Teodoro, Oriental Mindoro to educate them on the landmine issue globally and in the Philippines.

Production, Transfer, Stockpiling and Use

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) states that it has never used antipersonnel mines in its fight against the country’s communist and Moro insurgent groups. The Philippines maintains that it has never produced or exported mines.^[4] It imported Claymore-type mines from the United States. The Philippines proclaimed that it disposed of its entire inventory of 2,460 Claymore mines in July 1998. There have been reports and allegations in the past that some soldiers, and former soldiers, still hold Claymore mines.^[5]

In October 2005, the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front of the Philippines (CPP-NPA-NDFP) alleged that Philippine military forces “use land mines and lay them on paths where they expect the NPA and the people to take,” but it has provided no evidence.^[6]

Production, Stockpiling and Use by Non-State Armed Groups

In the news media and elsewhere in the Philippines, devices characterized as rebel “landmines” are predominantly self-manufactured, command-detonated explosive devices, or improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Landmine Monitor has found no evidence of use or possession of factory-made antipersonnel mines by rebel groups in the Philippines in this reporting period (since May 2005).

In 2005 and early 2006, Landmine Monitor recorded landmine/IED incidents, seizures or recoveries in 20 provinces. These included 12 provinces in Mindanao (Sulu, South Cotabato, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Davao del Sur, Davao del Norte, Compostela, Bukidnon, Zamboanga del Sur, Misamis Occidental, Agusan del Sur and Surigao del Sur), two provinces in the Visayas (Iloilo and Samar), and six provinces in Luzon (Bontoc, Aurora, Batangas, Oriental Mindoro, Camarines Norte, and Masbate/Burias island).^[7]

There were no reported incidents of landmine use by rebel groups engaged in a peace process with the Philippine government. In November 2005, 60 members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) reportedly attended a training program on the landmine ban and other humanitarian issues co-organized by the Swiss-based NGO Geneva Call, International Committee of the Red Cross, Southeast Asia Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers and Institute of Bangsamoro Studies, a local NGO based in Cotabato.^[8] A similar workshop was co-organized for Bangsamoro youth in May 2005 by Geneva Call and the Center for Muslim Youth.^[9]

New People’s Army: The New People’s Army is the armed force of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front. Established in 1969, it is considered the biggest threat to the Philippine government. The CPP-NPA-NDFP claims adherence to international humanitarian law.^[10] In 1998, it signed a Comprehensive Agreement to Respect Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) with the Philippine government. The CARHRIHL provides for the right of civilians not to be subjected to landmines.^[11]

NPA admits that it produces explosive devices for use in warfare, claiming it has “strict standards in producing and employing” them.^[12] In November 2005, a spokesperson for the CPP-NPA-NDFP, Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal, said that the rebel group makes improvised explosives out of materials salvaged from World War II-vintage bombs that they buy from fishermen and treasure hunters.^[13] Soldiers of the 48th Infantry Battalion seized an NPA “training manual for making land mines” among the documents recovered from an NPA camp in Sitio Alasanay, Bgy. Dimanayat, San Luis, Aurora on 27-28 September 2005.^[14]

The NPA intensified its offensives against the government in 2005, including increased use of command-detonated improvised antivehicle explosive devices, resulting in a considerable increase in the number of casualties recorded.

In June 2005, photographs in the media showed Claymore mines and antivehicle explosive devices among the weapons reportedly captured by the AFP in a raid on an NPA camp in Tubo, Abra.^[15] Military bomb experts reportedly recovered three timing fuzes and 3.4 kilograms of explosives inside a bus filled with students in Zaragoza, Nueva Ecija on 11 July 2005. The Central Luzon police director said the explosives were used in the manufacture of landmines.^[16]

In November 2005, the military reportedly recovered two improvised antivehicle landmines from an NPA cargo truck in Quezon province.^[17] On 22 November, the military spokesman for the Southern Command said the military recovered “crude landmines” after encounters between communist rebels and soldiers in two incidents in Montevista, a southern island of Mindanao.^[18] Army soldiers also reportedly recovered four antipersonnel mines from a slain rebel in Bgy. San Ramon, San Lorenzo Ruiz, Camarines Norte, after an encounter on 12 December.^[19]

On 15 January 2006, after gun battles between the Philippine Air Force and suspected NPA rebels in Balayan, Batangas, a province nearer Manila, the AFP reported recovering 30 antipersonnel landmines, shrapnel used in landmines, 10 landmine casings and detonating cords.^[20] In northern Luzon, policemen reportedly arrested 11 communist rebels in the process of planting a landmine on the Bontoc-Sabangan road in Mountain Province early in February 2006.^[21] On 2 March 2006, troops from the 30th Infantry Battalion recovered improvised antivehicle and antipersonnel landmines at Bgy. Bahanub, Gigaquit, Surigao del Norte.^[22]

Military officials have been vocal in decrying NPA’s use of landmines as a violation of the CARHRIHL.^[23] Major General Cardozo M. Luna, commanding general of the 4th Infantry Division, which covers three regions in Mindanao, lamented the continued use of landmines by the CPP-NPA.^[24] The AFP claims that the NPA is increasingly using mines as an “offensive, strategic weapon” rather than as a defensive, tactical one.^[25] In the government crackdown in February 2006, one of the charges against 51 people accused of rebellion was the “use of landmines.”^[26]

The CPP-NPA-NDFP continues to deny using victim-activated or self-detonating landmines. The CPP states that the NPA employs only command-detonated landmines as “legitimate offensive weapons against military vehicles of the AFP and Philippine National Police (PNP) transporting troops and supplies across and within AFP-NPA battlefields.”^[27] The CPP claims that the NPA’s landmines “are carefully attended to by NPA fighters to ensure that these are fired only against legitimate military targets.”^[28] The NDFP has defended the use of mines, claiming that states freely use “far more destructive weapons like artillery, cluster bombs and other types of plane-delivered bombs, cruise missiles and nuclear, biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction.”^[29] The NDFP points out “that the US, which is the principal supplier of weapons to the GRP’s armed forces, refuses to sign the agreement to ban anti-personnel mines.”^[30]

Reports from the field seem to verify that the NPA uses command-detonated antivehicle mines rather than victim-activated antipersonnel landmines. Landmines recovered by the military often come with detonating cords. Survivors of the 19 November 2005 landmine attack in Iloilo stated that the landmine used against them was most probably command-detonated.^[31]

However, in a letter dated 27 October 2005, the NDFP stated that the NPA uses “contact-detonated or command-detonated landmines...for a limited time and limited range and under close supervision of the NPA command concerned in order not to cause risk for civilians.”^[32] This statement is not consistent with earlier ones made by CPP-NPA-NDFP leaders that the NPA uses only command-detonated mines. NPA mines have caused civilian casualties, particularly soldiers’ dependents riding in military vehicles.

Moro National Liberation Front: The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) is a Muslim separatist movement based in Sulu that signed a peace agreement with the Philippine government in 1996.^[33] Hostilities broke out again in February 2005 when the MNLF attacked government troops in retaliation for an alleged massacre by the AFP of a Muslim family.

In March 2006, an MNLF representative told Landmine Monitor that it only uses antivehicle mines, which it produces itself.^[34] In February 2006, another source told Landmine Monitor that the MNLF had recently planted numerous antivehicle mines that were “self-activated upon impact and depending on the weight of the target.”^[35]

The representative stated that the MNLF obtains explosives and detonators—originally of Singaporean manufacture—from another nearby country. It also gets them from operations against the AFP and from unexploded rockets and bombs from OV-10 planes. He said the MNLF uses the explosives and detonators to produce antivehicle explosive devices, but it no longer produces or maintains a stockpile of antipersonnel mines. However, he acknowledged the MNLF continues to keep a stock of components, which could be used to manufacture victim-activated devices for the training of new recruits.^[36]

According to the same representative, the MNLF defuses its mines when not in use, recycles them, or buries them, so that they rot or are otherwise destroyed by the elements. He also said that the MNLF keeps maps of its mined areas, and claimed that the MNLF has not had any mine-related casualties, but has suffered accidental explosions of detonators during training or practice.^[37]

Last year, Landmine Monitor reported that the commander of MNLF operations in eastern Sulu, Ustadz Habier Malik, admitted that his forces have employed improvised antipersonnel and antivehicle landmines that detonate on impact in places where enemy forces, and not civilians, are expected to pass. Landmine Monitor also reported that the commander of MNLF operations in western Sulu, Khaid O. Ajibon, categorically denied that his forces have used mines.^[38]

Abu Sayyaf Group: The Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) is a radical Islamic group based in Mindanao. The AFP has accused it of using landmines for several years. AFP Southern Command Chief Lieutenant General Alberto Braganza said that the ASG started planting landmines in February 2005 in Sulu to delay pursuing government troops.^[39] The AFP blamed Abu Sayyaf for an incident on 23 May 2005, when three soldiers reportedly died and two others were injured by a landmine in Kopong, Indanan, Sulu.^[40] In November 2005, after fighting raged between hundreds of military troops and 150 ASG rebels and MNLF “rogue members,” Brigadier General Alexander Aleo told reporters that military troops seized bomb-making materials and antitank projectiles used to make crude mines in three abandoned rebel camps in the mountains near Indanan, Sulu.^[41]

A reliable source in the MNLF confirmed the AFP’s assertion that the MNLF and ASG have been in a tactical alliance since November 2005.^[42] The MNLF source also confirmed that the ASG had planted numerous pressure-activated antivehicle mines.^[43] He said that the ASG in Sulu obtain their landmine components in the same way that the MNLF does, from encounters with the AFP and from a nearby Asian country.^[44]

Landmine Problem and Mine Action

The Philippines has consistently denied in its Article 7 reports that any area is mine-affected, asserting that wherever landmines and IEDs are found, they are immediately removed.^[45] However, the sharp escalation in casualties in 2005 showed that the use of landmines and IEDs in areas of conflict between government and a variety of non-state armed groups poses a threat to civilians as well as the military.

There are still landmines planted in the mountains of Misamis Oriental, Surigao and Agusan, according to a peasant leader in the area communicating with Landmine Monitor on the basis of anonymity. He said it was very difficult to get details because of NPA operations in these areas.^[46] The Philippine Red Cross also reported facing difficulty reaching evacuees in eastern Sulu in February 2005 because of landmines reportedly planted by rebels.^[47]

The Philippines has no formal mine action program. The Armed Forces have “seven detachments of explosives experts” deployed across the country engaged in “protecting as well as educating” the public.^[48]

Landmine/IED Casualties

There is no comprehensive data collection in the Philippines on landmine/IED incidents. Landmine Monitor media analysis found 145 mine/IED casualties reported in 2005, including 18 civilians. Sixty-five people were killed, including at least seven civilians (one child), and 80 injured, including at least 12 civilians (two women). This is a nearly 300 percent increase on the 47 casualties reported in 2004.^[49]

In one incident on 27 April 2005, a 37-year-old farmer stepped on a landmine on Pata Island and severely injured his leg; his daughter and another companion were killed in the incident. In May 2005, the US military airlifted the farmer to Zamboanga hospital after he suffered from a gangrene infection in his leg because of the unavailability of transportation to adequate medical facilities. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had informed the US military of the situation.^[50] On 23 May 2005, three soldiers reportedly died and two others were hurt when they stepped on a landmine in Kopong, Indanan, Sulu.^[51] On 28 June 2005, two soldiers and a civilian woman were killed when their military vehicle triggered a mine believed to have been placed by rebels.^[52] On 7 September, two soldiers, including an army lieutenant, were injured by a Claymore mine in Tampakan, South Cotabato.^[53] On 19 November, nine soldiers were killed and 23 were injured in a landmine ambush in Calinog, Iloilo, resulting in the single largest casualty count of the year.^[54] On 16 December, three soldiers were killed and at least 10 civilian volunteers were injured by an antivehicle mine in Tulunan, North Cotabato.^[55]

Casualties continued to be reported in 2006. Landmine Monitor media analysis found 15 casualties as of 15 May 2006: six killed (one civilian) and nine injured. On 1 February, a soldier driving a truck was injured by a landmine in Matanao town in Davao del Sur.^[56] On 3 March, two police officers and a civilian were killed, and three other policemen injured, when ambushed with a landmine in Puerto Galera, Oriental Mindoro.^[57] On 12 March, three soldiers were killed and five others were injured by a landmine in San Luis, Agusan del Sur.^[58]

Casualty figures have been steadily increasing since 1991. Between 2000 and 2005, at least 126 people were killed and 194 injured in mine/IED incidents, and at least 19 killed and 50 injured between 1991 and 1995. In 2004, there was also a report of an incident involving unexploded ordnance (UXO), which killed a farmer and seriously injured his brother while they were plowing a field.^[59]

Survivor Assistance

Armed Forces personnel and civilian casualties are taken to the nearest military or government hospital for immediate treatment. The Department of Social Welfare and Development has no specific programs for landmine survivors, but provides services to individuals and groups in crisis who seek assistance. It has transferred its social welfare services to local government units, including rehabilitation services for people with disabilities, whatever the cause of disability. The Department of Health supports prosthetics and physiotherapy services. The social welfare sector provides services, including psychosocial support to people with disabilities, to assist with learning to cope with a disability and to live a normal and productive life.^[60] However, no psychological or psychiatric treatment is routinely provided, even for those suffering from war trauma.^[61]

Although medical and rehabilitation care is available, many civilians, especially in conflict areas, cannot afford it, and landmine casualties are treated in the same way as other conflict casualties. The price of a wheelchair ranges from PHP9,000 to PHP20,000 ($163 to $363), while the average annual income of families in rural areas is only PHP85,373 ($1,548).^[62]

Soldiers who have survived landmine incidents receive some financial assistance from the government for their everyday needs. The families of the nine soldiers who were killed in the mine explosion in Calinog, Iloilo received benefits. In one case, however, it took more than two months before a soldier injured in the Iloilo incident received surgery due to a lack of funds to provide for his treatment.^[63] Families of dead soldiers can also access educational programs for direct dependents.^[64]

Although Handicap International (HI) prioritizes civilians, soldiers have occasionally sought and received assistance for customized wheelchairs when government services were insufficient.^[65] Government, domestic NGOs and UN agencies network formally and informally to meet survivors’ needs.

HI provided services to the disabled, including survivors, through several activities in 2005: the orthopedic workshop at Notre Dame Hospital, the Hilwai disability outreach project and Wheelchairs for Mindanao Project. Information on the number of landmine/UXO survivors served by the HI projects was not available. Although HI processes client data according to disability type and has considered disaggregating the causes of disability in areas of armed conflict, it has not yet done so.^[66] The HI orthopedic workshop at Notre Dame Hospital in Cotabato City, central Mindanao, provided counseling, physical therapy and the provision of mobility devices to survivors of the internal conflict. There is a waiting list for people in need of services. In 2005, 25 people received prosthetic support, 25 prosthetics were produced and six wheelchairs distributed. In January 2005, HI launched the Hilwai project: a boat equipped to make artificial limbs and provide rehabilitation services, including home and community-based rehabilitation, traveling between islands in the Visayas. In 2005, 191 people received rehabilitation services, 51 prostheses and 12 orthoses were produced, and 27 wheelchairs distributed. The Hilwai project has a medical, rehabilitation and social support team. The three teams also provided advocacy training, capacity building to local organizations for people with disabilities, counseling and referrals to partner organizations.^[67] HI also provided community-based rehabilitation and conducted training on disability identification in Cotabato, where it worked through a network of local partners to orient family and community care of the disabled, including survivors, so they do not completely rely on hospital services or charity.^[68]

The Wheelchairs for Mindanao Project, implemented by HI and five local partners, is funded from 8 June 2004 through 7 June 2008 with a budget of $750,000 by the Leahy War Victims Fund.^[69] As part of the project, on 3 February 2005, the Wheelchair Production Center was inaugurated in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental. As of 30 January 2006, the project had produced 70 wheelchairs and trained eight wheelchair technicians, five physical therapists, five social workers and five disability technicians. The project aims to produce 25 customized wheelchairs per month, and distributes through local partnerships in Cagayan de Oro City, Agusan del Sur/Bislig City, Davao City, Cotaboto City and Zamboanga City. Other components of this project are physiotherapy, counseling, maintenance and repair of wheelchairs.^[70]

ICRC continued to provide both medical supplies and financial support to health facilities and civilians in Mindanao. In 2005, ICRC supported surgical treatment for 82 people, and distributed 26 prostheses, 26 canes and 26 crutches.^[71]

In the private sector, two foundations assist the families of soldiers killed in action: Help Educate and Raise Orphans Foundation (HERO) and the Alay sa Kawal Foundation (ASK). HERO provided assistance to families of the nine soldiers killed in a mine explosion in Iloilo.^[72] ASK aims to provide various forms of assistance to those in the military service.^[73]  

Disability Policy and Practice

The 1992 Magna Carta for Disabled Persons protects the rights of people with disabilities in the areas of rehabilitation, education, employment and integration in society, and prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability. Implementing regulations are reportedly weak.^[74] However, to reinforce the 1992 Magna Carta, two presidential executive orders for the disabled were proclaimed in 2005. The first directed the implementation of the economic independence program for people with disabilities.^[75] The second encourages the implementation of community-based rehabilitation for disabled people in the Philippines.^[76] The Philippines is currently celebrating the Philippine Decade of Persons with Disabilities from 2003-2012 and sponsored the third ASEAN Para Games last December.

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[1] Telephone interview with Philip Lina, Technical Staff, Office of Sen. Juan M. Flavier, 20 February 2006. In the lower house of Congress, Akbayan party list representatives Loretta Ann P. Rosales and Mario Joyo Aguja have promised their support. A house committee was scheduled to deliberate its version of the bill on 31 May 2006, but the meeting was postponed because of other concerns. At the First International Humanitarian Law National Consultative Conference in November 2005, representatives of government agencies, the Philippine National Red Cross and NGOs resolved to work for the passage of this comprehensive landmine bill drafted by the Philippine Campaign to Ban Landmines. First International Humanitarian Law National Consultative Conference, “Declaration of Commitment to International Humanitarian Law and Resolution for its Advancement in the Philippines,” para. 1A, Manila, 23 November 2005.
[2] Previous reports were submitted on 12 September 2000, 12 September 2001, 5 April 2002, 14 May 2003, 15 February 2004 and 9 May 2005. Some reports were incomplete.
[3] PCBL, “General Statement and Calls on the Landmines Issue in the Philippines for the Coming Year 2006,” 20 November 2005.
[4] The US government identified the Philippines as a minor producer in the past, but the Philippines denies it. See Landmine Monitor Report 1999, p. 421.
[5] For more details, see previous editions of Landmine Monitor.
[6] Letter to Geneva Call re: So-called Profile of the CPP/NPA/NDFP from Fidel V. Agcaoili, Member of NDFP Negotiating Panel, 27 October 2005. The CPP also alleged government use of mines in January 2005. See Landmine Monitor Report 2005, p. 487.
[7] In the previous reporting period, Landmine Monitor recorded landmine/IED incidents, seizures or recoveries in 23 provinces.
[8] “Philippines: Training of Trainers with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front,” Geneva Call Newsletter, Vol. 4, No. 1, February 2006; email from Elisabeth Reusse-Decrey, Geneva Call, 29 June 2006. The MILF signed the Geneva Call Deed of Commitment renouncing antipersonnel mines in 2000 and 2002, though there were reports of ongoing use until 2004. See Landmine Monitor Report 2005, p. 490. Sweden reported donating SEK300,000 (US$40,155) to Geneva Call in 2005 for advocacy in the Philippines. Sweden Article 7 Report, Form J, 2 May 2006.
[9] Email from Elisabeth Reusse-Decrey, Geneva Call, 29 June 2006.
[10] Letter to Geneva Call re: So-called Profile of the CPP/NPA/NDFP from Fidel V. Agcaoili, NDFP Negotiating Panel, 27 October 2005.
[11] The Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law, Part III, Respect for Human Rights, Article 2 (15), 16 March 1998. The agreement does not specify whether “mines” are antipersonnel or antivehicle, command- or victim-activated.
[12] Communist Party of the Philippines, “Clarifications on the issue of land mines,” www.philippinerevolution.org, accessed 26 November 2006.
[13] Nestor P. Burgos, Jr. and Delfin T. Mallari, Jr., “Widows wail as Ka Roger celebrates Iloilo ambush,” Philippine Daily Inquirer, 22 November 2005, p. A7.
[14] “Recent Landmining Activities of the CTM,” enclosure to a report provided by Maj. Gen. Hermogenes C. Esperon, AFP, to the PCBL on 18 November 2005, p. 6; Anselmo Roque and Tonette Orejas, “Palparan links execs to anti-GMA plot,” Philippine Daily Inquirer, 16 October 2005, p. A3. The manual consists of a computer printout of instructions for making an MXI-A fragmentation grenade and a notebook containing handwritten notes in Filipino for a “demo training” in making explosive devices. The demo training consists of three parts: theoretical, practical and test fire; and three topics, a short course in electronics, a basic course in explosives and demolition. The two projects listed for the practical training section are electronics, to include electronic blasting machine and electrical filament, and eight types of explosive devices, including Claymore mines and antitank landmines. A photocopy of the manual was provided to the PCBL by the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, J3, Camp General Emilio Aguinaldo, Quezon City.
[15] “Rebel Arms,” photograph by Leoncio Balbin, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 25 June 2005, p. A18.
[16] Tonette Orejas, “Soldiers seize explosives in bus,” Philippine Daily Inquirer, 13 July 2005, p. A19.
[17] Emails from Miriam Coronel Ferrer, Co-coordinator, SULONG CARHRIHL, “November 2005 Hostilities in Central Quezon Province: Summary of Events as of 27 November 2005,” 29 November 2005, and “Comments re Draft Sulong Statement,” 2 December 2005.
[18] Manny Mogato, “Communist rebels kill 5 Philippine troops, militia,” Reuters, 29 November 2005.
[19] Gil Francis Arevalo, PDI Southern Luzon Bureau, “Reb slain in clash,” Philippine Daily Inquirer, 16 December 2005.
[20] Marlon Ramos, “Air Force men recover firearms, landmines,” Philippine Daily Inquirer, 15 January 2006.
[21] Rick Reyes, “Cops capture 11 Reds in Mankayan raid,” Manila Standard Today, 2 February 2006.
[22] “Landmine attack,” Armed Forces of the Philippines Website, www.armedforces.mil.ph, accessed 6 March 2006.
[23] Pops H. Gumana, “NPA attack ‘satanic and anti-poor’ - Gov. Pinol,” Philippine Information Agency (General Santos City), 21 December 2005.
[24] Rutchie Cabahug-Aguhob, “CPP-NPA, major human rights violators in Mindanao,” WOW, 25 November 2005, http://wowcagayandeoro.com.
[25] “Recent Landmining Activities of the CTM,” enclosure to a report provided by Maj. Gen. Hermogenes C. Esperon, AFP, to the PCBL on 18 November 2005, p. 5.
[26] Letter of Complaint from Police Chief Superintendent Rodolfo B. Mendoza Jr. against 51 people accused of rebellion/insurrection, to Department of Justice Secretary Raul M. Gonzales, 27 February 2006, p. 4.
[27] Communist Party of the Philippines, “Clarifications on the issue of land mines,” 26 November 2006.
[28] Ibid.
[29] Letter to Geneva Call re: So-called Profile of the CPP/NPA/NDFP from Fidel V. Agcaoili, NDFP Negotiating Panel, 27 October 2005.
[30] Ruth De Leon, Executive Director, NDFP International Information Office, “NDFP answers false claims against the revolutionary movement,” home.wanadoo.nl, accessed 21 January 2005.
[31] Interview with survivors of antivehicle landmine incident in Calinog, Iloilo, 19 November 2005, V. Luna Hospital, 8 December 2005.
[32] Letter to Geneva Call re: So-called Profile of the CPP/NPA/NDFP from Fidel V. Agcaoili, NDFP Negotiating Panel, 27 October 2005. Emphasis added by Landmine Monitor.
[33] At the height of the armed conflict between the Marcos government and the MNLF in the 1970s, the MNLF produced and used both victim-activated antipersonnel mines and improvised explosive devices. The MNLF says it ceased producing IEDs in the late 1980s because of the indiscriminate effect on the populace as well as the combatants; however a lack in the supply of detonators was a contributing factor. Interview with “Khalid Al-Walid,” urban operative of the MNLF and current political officer, Jolo, Sulu, 10 March 2006.
[34] Ibid.
[35] Short Text Message (SMS) to Landmine Monitor from unnamed source, Sulu, 1:04 pm, 19 February 2006 and 5:20 pm, 20 February 2006.
[36] Interview with “Khalid Al-Walid,” MNLF, Jolo-Sulu, 10 March 2006.
[37] Ibid.
[38] See Landmine Monitor Report 2005, pp. 489-490. Ajibon suggested that the Abu Sayyaf Group was probably responsible for reported mine use.
[39] Bong Garcia Jr., “Sayyaf using landmines, says Southcom chief,” Mindanews, 2 June 2005.
[40] Ibid.
[41] “Philippine troops kill 4 militants in the south,” Reuters (Manila), 28 November 2005.
[42] SMS to Landmine Monitor from unnamed source, Sulu, 8:41 am, 19 February 2006.
[43] SMS to Landmine Monitor from unnamed source, Sulu, 1:04 pm, 19 February 2006.
[44] SMS from an unnamed source in the MNLF, 5:19 am, 21 March 2006.
[45] See Landmine Monitor Report 2005, p. 491.
[46] Information provided by email, 22 and 24 October 2005, 21 and 23 February 2006.
[47] See Landmine Monitor Report 2005, p. 491.
[48] Article 7 Report, Form I, 25 April 2005.
[49] See Landmine Monitor Report 2005, p. 492.
[50] Ed General, “Landmine victim gets US Army help,” Philippine Daily Inquirer, 7 May 2005, p. A19.
[51] Bong Garcia Jr., “Sayyaf using landmines, says Southcom chief,” Mindanews, 2 June 2005.
[52] Jani Arnaiz, “Palparan dares militants to denounce killings,” Philippine Daily Inquirer, 4 July 2005, p. A17.
[53] Armed Forces of the Philippines, “Detailed Reports on Crimes Involving DTs/Atrocities, CY2005,” annexed to Letter of Complaint from Police Chief Superintendent Rodolfo B. Mendoza Jr. to Department of Justice Secretary Raul M. Gonzales, 27 February 2006; Edwin Fernandez and Jeoffrey Maitem, “2 hurt in landmine blast,” Philippine Daily Inquirer, 9 September 2005, p. A17.
[54] Command Operation Center, Camp Lapulapu, Cebu City, “Summary/Matrix of Landmining Reports,” provided by the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, J3, Armed Forces of the Philippines, Camp General Emilio Aguinaldo, Quezon City, 20 March 2006; Nestor P. Burgos Jr. and Delfin T. Mallari Jr., “Widows wail as Ka Roger celebrates Iloilo ambush,” Philippine Daily Inquirer, 22 November 2005, pp. A1, A7; Luige A. del Puerto, Marlon Ramos, Delfin Mallari Jr. and Marciano T. Virola Jr., “NPA land mine kills 2 cops in Puerto Galera,” Philippine Daily Inquirer, 4 March 2006.
[55] Pops H. Gumana, “NPA attack ‘satanic and anti-poor’ - Gov. Pinol,” Pia News Releases (General Santos City), 21 December 2005.
[56] Bong Garcia Jr., “Troops, NPAs clash in Davao del Sur; 1 hurt in bomb explosion,” Mindanews, 4 February 2006; “Troops, NPAs clash in Mindanao; 1 hurt in bomb explosion,” Balita.ph, 29 April 2006.
[57] Luige A. del Puerto, Marlon Ramos, Delfin Mallari Jr. and Marciano T. Virola Jr., “NPA land mine kills 2 cops in Puerto Galera,” Philippine Daily Inquirer, 4 March 2006, p. A1; Joel Guinto, “3 killed in landmine explosion in Oriental Mindoro town,” INQ7.net, 3 March 2006.
[58] Franklin M. Caliguid and Dennis Jay C. Santos, “Landmine kills 3 soldiers,” Philippine Daily Inquirer, 15 March 2006, p. A23; Joel Guinto, “3 soldiers killed in Agusan del Sur ambush,” INQ7.net, 13 March 2006.
[59] See Landmine Monitor Report 2005, p. 492; Landmine Monitor Report 2004, p. 675.
[60] See Landmine Monitor Report 2005, p. 492.
[61] Interviews with survivors of the landmine incident in Calinog, Iloilo on 19 November 2005, V. Luna Hospital, AFP Medical Center, Quezon City, 8 December 2005 and 15 January 2006.
[62] Telephone interview with Joy Regalado, Program Coordinator, HI-Manila, 20 March 2006; Republic of the Philippines National Statistics Coordination Board, “National Philippine Statistical Yearbook 2004,” as cited in StatWatch, www.nscb.gov.ph, accessed 23 May 2006. Average exchange rate for 2005: US$1 = PHP55.13999, used throughout this report. Landmine Monitor estimate based on www.oanda.com.
[63] Interviews with survivors of the landmine incident in Calinog, Iloilo on 19 November 2005, V. Luna Hospital, AFP Medical Center, Quezon City, 8 December 2005, 15 January and 20 March 2006. At least PHP300,000 ($5,440) was needed for the surgery of the soldier whose jaw was dislocated in a landmine attack. By 20 March 2006, this soldier had been operated on and was transferred to another hospital to recuperate.
[64] T. Villavert, “Families of soldiers slain in Iloilo ambush to receive assistance,” Philippine Information Agency, 24 November 2005.
[65] Telephone interview with Joy Regalado, HI-Manila, 20 March 2006.
[66] Ibid.
[67] Email from Benjamin Gobin, Program Director, HI-Manila, 25 May 2006.
[68] Telephone interview with Joy Regalado, HI-Manila, 20 March 2006.
[69] HI, “Wheelchairs For Mindanao Project,” www.handicap-international.org.uk, accessed 26 February 2006.
[70] USAID Philippines, Conflict Resolution in Mindanao, “Wheelchairs for Mindanao for War Victims and Other Disabled Persons,” www.usaid-ph.gov, accessed 20 March 2006.
[71] Email from Jean-Luc Joliat, Head of Rehabilitation, ICRC, Davao City, 23 May 2006.
[72]“ Alay sa Kawal Foundation (ASK) & HERO,” Philippine Information Agency, www.pia.gov.ph, accessed 26 February 2006.
[73] Telephone interview with Ramon Pedrosa, President, Alay sa Kawal Foundation (ASK), Manila, 20 March 2006.
[74] US Department of State, “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices-2005: Philippines,” Washington DC, 8 March 2006; “Magna Carta for Disabled Persons,” 24 March 1992, www.dredf.org, accessed 1 May 2006.
[75] President of the Philippines, Executive Order No. 417, 22 March 2005, www.ops.gov.ph, accessed 29 April 2006.
[76] President of the Philippines, Executive Order, No. 437, 21 June 2005, www.ops.gov.ph.