The headline is a Philippine saying akin to cut your coat

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1 CBRNeWORLD Gwyn Winfield looks at how the Philippine Army is steadily developing their CBRN capability While the blanket is short, learn how to bend / Hangga't makitid ang kumot, matutong bumaluktot The headline is a Philippine saying akin to cut your coat according to your cloth, advising that if your blanket is not long enough to cover you completely then you need to bend your legs to ensure that it does. It is an apt analogy for what is going on in CBRN defence within the Philippine army, which is currently in the process of improving capability with a great deal of help from the Americans. Previously CBRN in the Philippines was the purview of the fire service with some support from the police (See December 2015 CBRNe World), but in recent years there has been a major inject into the services. The engineers recently took delivery of a mass decontamination unit and the army has stood up its CBRN platoon and is looking to stand up a second one by the end of the year. The CBRN threat to Philippine forces is nebulous, but real. At the one extreme there s Abu Sayaf, the Philippines own Muslim fundamentalists, and at the other, the threat from China in the South China sea. Current legislation (though this is changing) allows individuals, including the public, to buy a wide variety of chemicals, and other substances, that are often strictly controlled in other countries. This gives individuals the opportunity to create their own improvised explosive devices (IED), low grade chemical weapons, or methamphetamine with very little oversight. The Philippine Armed Forces have built a very slick, but small, CBRN response force CBRNe World CBRNe Convergence Europe, Westminster, London, UK, May, 2017 /convergenceeurope 70 CBRNe WORLD October 2016

2 The drug problem in the Philippines is endemic, and while the current campaign against it is draconian it has massive local support. Thankfully the drug gangs have yet to stoop to using chemical devices against the security services, but these things cannot be guaranteed to remain the same. As such the army has to have the capability to deal with anything from state action through to criminal/terrorist CBR attacks. When I get to Fort Bonafacio, not far from the airport in the Makati district of Manila, they are looking at a scenario at the terrorist end of the scale. The exercise I witness is the last stage of a week long event that has been designed to refresh the skills of the platoon and to provide a demonstration of capability to a range of interested agencies. Today the audience is largely composed of army reserve forces plus EOD units, and on show are the platoon s detection, forensic and self-decontamination capabilities. The scenario is based on a shell that has been unearthed and some civilians have presented to hospital showing signs of chemical exposure. The police have been called, have cordoned the area off and called the platoon to take a sample, mitigate the device, contain the contamination and collect all evidence needed for potential prosecution. There are no casualties on the scene, and no other agencies to deal with, so it is a fairly straightforward exercise. That said it was still done well. There is no doubt that elements of the Philippine army capability are still in an early phase. For example detection devices are still in single figures in the platoon and the briefing room has only just been fitted with (very welcome) air conditioning. These are small things compared to the quality of the training that the platoon has received, and more importantly maintained. Anyone who has been involved in training nations with little interest in CBRN has stories to tell of how when they came back six months later, they had to do it all again. This has not been the case in the Philippine army, as evidenced by the exercise I saw. They are setting up their own training events, without outside support, to ensure that skills are kept fresh. Not only are they trying to keep their skills keen, but also to push the same skills under stress conditions. For example in July they ran one of their exercises at night, to see how well they manage when light is not a given. Indeed the team is cheerful and looking forward to training in the 30oC (86oF) high humidity environment. A combination of poor traffic and reluctant taxi drivers has made me 45 minutes late, and the team still displays a cheerful demeanour despite having to wait in level B personal protective equipment (PPE) for me to arrive. As opposed to other teams, that tend to zip the joint chemical agent detector (JCAD) around the device, the dirty man laboriously moves the JCAD around the device in the proscribed manner. The clean man is also careful about /convergenceeurope

3 CBRNeWORLD While the blanket is short... The Philippines are a curious mix of low assets but high skillset. Their CBRN forensic awareness is pretty high CBRNe World all the contamination and control of evidence, going through glove changes and labelling of containers. Meanwhile the third member of the team is photographing the whole event and radioing information back to command. Two of the three operatives that go down range are EOD personnel and are able to leak seal and package the device with a high degree of familiarity with 105mm shells. The decon section is also nicely done, the team is thorough with its brushing and again lingers over the detection element. Finally the team members are all processed by a medical team to check their vitals and ensure that they are ready to return to duty an element you rarely see exercised. It is a great display of current generation training from a nation that you would expect, from the chicken strewn grounds, to showcase last generation. The Philippines might not have a lot, but they have learned to bend to their blanket and have put together a nice capability. They are looking to expand on this capability. They are hoping for a second platoon, and are currently in negotiation with DTRA/PACOM/JPEO CBD to ensure that it can be equipped. Meanwhile they are also absorbing the training that the DoD has to offer, with one team member having been through the lieutenants course, a nurse expecting to go to Edgewood to do the CBRN medical course and a hopeful Captain Maala keen to do the CBRN captain s career course in Fort Leonard Wood. In addition to this they have eight EOD officers trained in CBRN, and are expecting that to rise to 20, with another 12 expected to be trained by November. In terms of training goals they want to improve their forensic awareness and evidence collection capability, as they appreciate that they might be required to collect evidence that might be needed in court. In addition to the forensic piece they are also keen to work up the presumptive identification and containment element. The army has no mobile lab, so the need to provide identification is going to fall heavily on the platoon. The next six months will be big ones for the Philippine army capability, it will see the CBRN platoon joined by another platoon, for which they will need to work out tasking and equipment, and work towards a large interagency exercise, organised by DTRA in March. There is also the suggestion that the next national focal point of the Philippines will be a military individual, moving the balance of interest proportionally away from the civilian sector, which will have an interesting impact on CBRN defence in the Philippines. DoD officials have been impressed with the enthusiasm and commitment to CBRN defence, but currently there are shallow roots in CBRN defence in the army, so it will be interesting to see whether this commitment is maintained. Certainly Brigadier General Amante, commander of the armed forces of the Philippines munitions control centre, is a big fan of CBRN and one will hope that future generations will be too to see this excellent start maintained. CBRNe Convergence Europe, Westminster, London, UK, May, 2017 /convergenceeurope 72 CBRNe WORLD October 2016

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