3ID Calls for Total Landmine Ban

by 1LT MARK ANDREW T POSADAS PA

The recent recoveries of several Improvised Explosive Devices (improvised Claymore anti-personnel mines) by the Army units in Western Visayas has prompted the 3rd Infantry (Spearhead) Division to renew its call for a legislative measure seeking for a total ban on the use of anti-personnel landmines and for the prohibition and restriction on the use of other landmines, booby traps and other similar devices.

In an official report presented to all Army unit commanders in Western Visayas, the Operations section of the 3rd Infantry Division recorded the recovery of nine (9) Improvised Explosive Devices (Claymore-type anti-personnel landmines) of the different Army units from the New People’s Army since March of this year. These were all recovered in Panay Island specifically in Tapaz, Capiz and in Calinog and Igbaras, Iloilo.

The Philippine government, as the State Party to both the 1997 Ottawa Treaty and the 1996 Amended Protocol, must pass the long-overdue corresponding domestic implementing legislation. This is the "Philippine Landmines Bill" for a "Philippine Comprehensive Law on Landmines," House Bill No. 1054 of Rep. Ana Theresia Hontiveros-Baraquel and counterpart Senate Bill No. 1595 of Sen. Gegorio B. Honasan II. The said bill if approved into law will help implement and enforce the IHL rules on landmines, including criminalizing and penalizing the violations of the relevant treaty norms.

The bill will be the main policy expression of the Philippines’ compliance with its international obligations under two related treaties: the "1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction" (or the Ottawa Treaty) and the "1996 Amended Protocol on Prohibitions and Restrictions on the Use of Mines, Booby-Traps and other Devices" (or the Amended Protocol II). The two treaties differ as the Ottawa Treaty calls for a total ban on the use of anti-personnel landmines while the Amended Protocol II merely restricts the use of all mines, whether anti-personnel or anti-vehicle.

3ID Commander, MGEN Vicente M Porto, reacting to the report on recovered landmines said, "Let us continue to lobby for the swift ratification of these two bills into law so that we can criminalize and penalize the NPA’s use of this deadly device against our citizens."

The 3ID denounces the use of anti-personnel mines against Filipino citizens by the Communist Terrorists. This legislation must be passed soon so that the full force of the Law will be applied on those caught in possession of these dangerous explosive devices. /MP