Philippines
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
UPDATE: On 3 January 2019, the Philippines deposited its instrument of ratification to the Convention on Cluster Munitions to become the 106th State Party. The treaty will enter into force for the Philippines on 1 July 2019. Information below will be updated later this year.
Summary: Signatory the Philippines has conducted extensive stakeholder consultations on the convention, but has yet to introduce the ratification proposal to parliament for its consideration and approval. The Philippines has participated in every meeting of the convention and voted in favor of a key United Nations (UN) resolution on the convention in December 2017.
The Philippines states that it has not used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.
Policy
The Republic of the Philippines signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008.
In September 2017, the Philippines provided States Parties with an update on its progress towards ratifying that noted its support for the convention is due to the priority it assigns to acting “in solidarity with other countries and its communities who have or are suffering from [the weapons’] adverse effects.”[1] The Philippines said the Department of Foreign Affairs is collecting “certificates of concurrence” from four ministries and then will forward the ratification proposal to the president for signature, from which it will proceed to the Senate for consideration and approval.
Over the past decade, the Philippines has engaged in extensive stakeholder consultations on the convention.[2]
The Philippines actively participated in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions and sought the most comprehensive treaty possible.[3]
The Philippines has participated in every meeting of the convention, most recently the Seventh Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2017.[4] It attended regional meetings on the convention, most recently in Bangkok in March 2017.[5]
In December 2017, the Philippines voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution, which urges states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[6] The Philippines voted in favor of the previous UNGA resolutions promoting implementation of the convention in 2015 and 2016.[7]
The Philippines elaborated its views on certain important issues relating to the interpretation and implementation of the conventionin September 2017, when it told States Parties thatas a signatory, it “continues to defend its position to prohibit the use, local and foreign stockpiling, investment, production, and transit of cluster munitions in the country.”[8] The Philippines has previously stated that it “has no intention to assist, encourage or induce any state, group or individual to engage in any of the prohibited activities.”[9]
The Philippine Campaign Against Cluster Munitions (PCCM) regularly raises the urgent need for the country to ratify the convention in its outreach to the Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of National Defense, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), 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 party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
The Philippines has stated several times that it has never used, produced, of transferred cluster munitions and possesses no stocks.[10]
In 2011, the Philippines stated that its armed forces have a standing directive that cluster munitions cannot be included as operational requirements.[11] In June 2016, the Department of Foreign Affairs said, “the prohibition on the use of cluster munitions is part of the operational policy of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.”[12]
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.[13]
In April 2013, the demining NGO Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (Fondation Suisse de Déminage, FSD) received an unexploded nine-kilogram M41A1 fragmentation bomb that the Philippine Army cleared from a construction site at Lanang in Davao City.[14]
[1] Statement of the Philippines, Convention on Cluster Munitions Seventh Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 4 September 2017.
[2] In 2016, the foreign minister told the Monitor that the government is “currently conducting broad consultations with concerned agencies and stakeholders with regard to the Convention’s ratification.” Letter to Mary Wareham, Advocacy Director, Human Rights Watch (HRW), from Bernadette Therese C. Fernandez, Executive Director, Office of UN and International Organizations, Department of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines, 25 April 2016.
[3] For details on the Philippines’ policy and practice regarding cluster munitions through early 2009, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 144–145.
[4] The Philippines has participated in every Meeting of States Parties of the convention as well as the First Review Conference in 2015 and intersessional meetings in 2011–2015
[5] European Union Nonproliferation Consortium, “Cooperating to implement the Convention on Cluster Munitions: the country coalition concept,” at UNESCAP, Bangkok 16–17 March 2017.
[6] “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,”UNGA Resolution 72/54, 4 December 2017.
[7] “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 71/45, 5 December 2016; and“Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 70/54, 7 December 2015.
[8] Statement of the Philippines, Convention on Cluster Munitions Seventh Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 4 September 2017.
[9] Letter from Leslie B. Gatan, Permanent Mission of the Philippines to the UN in New York, 2 March 2009. The Philippines reiterated this during the Regional Conference on the Promotion and Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Bali, Indonesia, 17 November 2009. Notes by Action on Armed Violence.
[10] Letter from Leslie B. Gatan, Permanent Mission of the Philippines to the UN in New York, 2 March 2009.
[11] Statement of the Philippines, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 14 September 2011.
[12] Letter to Mary Wareham, HRW, from Bernadette Therese C. Fernandez, Department of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines, 25 April 2016.
[13] PCCM meeting with Col. Gerry Amante, Commander of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Munitions Control Center, Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City, 25 March 2014. The AFM-M3 is a copy of the United States AN-M1A1 cluster adapter design. The use of an AN-M1A1 cluster adaptor enabled six M41A1 fragmentation bombs to be deployed at the same time, making the weapon similar in function to a cluster munition. To date, this is the only such bomb to have been found in the Philippines, and no adaptor has been recovered.
[14] 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. Philippine Campaign to Ban Landmines (PCBL), “PCBL Monitor April 2013,” 30 April 2013.