National laws, regulations and administrative procedures:

Presidential Decree 1866, as amended by Republic Act 8294; Executive Order No. 122, 13 September 1993

Accurate and comprehensive records for all marked SALW within their territory:

The Philippines maintains comprehensive and accurate records on the manufacture and holding of SALW under the provisions of Executive Order No. 122 which provides for the surrendering and licensing of loose firearms and the establishment of records for all firearms. All confiscated, captured, surrendered and deposited firearms are turned over to the storage branch of the Phillipine National Police (FED-PNP) to be recorded and tagged as to their type, kind, calibre, make and category. Each manufacturer must submit monthly reports to FED-PNP as to the type, calibre and quantities of finished products and sales made during that period. The FED-PNP is the final repository and sole clearing house of all records and information on firearms and ammuntion including government-owned firearms. Records are kept by this agency as long as necessary (with back up files stored on compact discs).

Measures taken for undertaking traces and responding to tracing requests:

In order to track systematically firearms, and where possible their parts and components, the FED-PNP has upgraded its Firearm Management Information System. It allows for the identification and verification of an individual SALW's path and destinations. At present, all records of firearms and firearms holders are encoded in the FIMS and can be easily traced and updated. Applicants for new firearms licences are required to complete a list of mandatory requirements and give information for encoding in the FIMS.

Operational Informaton Exchange:

The Philippine government shares information for law enforcement and prosecution purposes on the basis of supporting agreements such as the Agreement on Information Exchange and Establishment of Communication Procedures, signed 7 May 2002 with the governments of Indonesia and Malaysia.

Needs and Request for Assistance::
The Crime Laboratory Services of the Philippine National Police (CLS-PNP) has submitted to the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) a project proposal on the acquisition of an Integrated Ballistics Identification System (IBIS). The IBIS digitally captures the images of bullets and cartridge cases, stores them in a database, performs automated computer-based comparisons of the images and ranks them according to likelihood of match. The estimated cost is P330m.

Implementation challenges and opportunities:

The new regulation by the Firearms and Explosives Division of the National Police (FED-PNP), which decentralises the processing of licence applications to the regional level, may encourage illegal local gun manfacturers, particularly on the island of Cebu, to register legally. In this way, the proliferation of illicit firearms as defined in para. 6 of the ITI may be drastically reduced. The proposal to place universal markings on weapons as a means of identifying and detecting illicit trafficking in SALW would be a burden to less developed countries as it implies significant additional costs. The method of marking SALW should therefore remain a national prerogative. To trace and monitor the illicit trafficking on SALW, the Philippines would rely on Interpol in lieu of establishing an impartial and independent international registry which would be rather costly.