Five-Year Review: Signatory the Philippines has conducted extensive stakeholder consultations on the convention, but officials acknowledge that the ratification process lacks urgency and momentum. The Philippines has participated in all of the convention’s meetings, but rarely makes any statements. The Philippines states that it has not used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.

Policy

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

In June 2015, a government representative informed the Monitor that the ratification package for the Convention on Cluster Munitions has been prepared for Senate consideration and approval.[1] Previously, in April 2014, an official said the government has “continued its advocacy and awareness-raising activities” with government agencies and concerned stakeholders on the need for the ratification of the ban convention.[2] Officials have acknowledged that the ratification process lacks urgency and momentum.[3]

The Philippines actively participated in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions and sought the most comprehensive treaty possible.[4]

Despite not ratifying, the Philippines has participated in all of the convention’s Meetings of States Parties, including the Fifth Meeting of States Parties in San Jose, Costa Rica in September 2014, where it did not make a statement. The Philippines has attended all of the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva, most recently in June 2015.

The Philippine Campaign Against Cluster Munitions (PCCM) regularly raises the need for ratification of the convention with representatives from the Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of National Defense, Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine Commission on Human Rights, and the National Committee on International Humanitarian Law.

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 elaborate 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 stated 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 Department 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, but was not pursued beyond the research phase and was never used.[9]