The national government is collaborating with the United States defense department to build up its capabilities to prevent, reduce, and counter weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in case they are used in a crisis or conflict.
A weapon of mass destruction is a nuclear, radiological, chemical, biological, or other device that is intended to harm a large number of people, according to the US Department of Homeland Security.
Through the US Department of Defense (DoD), the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) seeks to work with foreign partners to "consolidate, secure, and eliminate WMD-related systems and materials; and detect and interdict WMD-related trafficking or outbreaks of high threat pathogens."
“We want to do things that will deter weapons of mass destruction attacks against the United States and our allies like the Philippines. We work to prevent, reduce, powder weapons of mass destruction threats around the world, and we help our partners to be prepared to prevail in the case that weapons of mass destruction are used in a crisis or conflict,” Dr. Robert Pope, director of the DTR Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) Program, said in an interview with Filipino journalists in Arlington, Virginia last week.
Pope sounded alarm over the increased vulnerability of the Philippines to WMD attacks, including potential exposure to biological threats due to its hot weather.
“My sense in the Philippines is, [having] a tropical climate, there are a lot of diseases, both human and zoonotic that can go from animals to humans,” he said.
To build up the capabilities of the Philippines to address biosecurity risks, the DTRA has conducted a live agent training for members of the Bureau of Fire Protection’s (BFP) Special Rescue Unit in Czech Republic in 2019 where the participants were trained how to prepare for and respond to chemical, biological, radiological/nuclear (CBRN) incidents.
The DTRA has also been holding international training workshops and courses for different Philippine government agencies such as the Department of Health (DOH) and Department of Agriculture (DA) in Manila to prevent, detect, and prepare for outbreaks caused by disease-causing pathogens.
The DTRA also built a Regional Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory facility in Cagayan Valley (Region 2) which was used in the early detection of an anthrax outbreak in late 2020 to early 2023, preventing the spread of the disease to the region’s carabao population and possibly to the human population.
Cory Erff, project manager of the DTRA’s Biological Threat Reduction Program, said that a biological threat to the Philippines can come in the form of a biological weapon from an accidental leak of a disease-causing pathogen out of a laboratory, or from a natural outbreak “like we've all experienced with COVID-19.”
“It's important to the Philippines, in the region, and us back here, to be able to have that effective capability across the Philippines, to see those diseases that circulate in a tropical climate and be able to do that accurate and early diagnosis and reporting so we can see outbreaks,” he said.
“Whether it's swine fever, influenza, anthrax, we need to help each other and detect it early so they don't become a large pandemic,” he added.
Chemical security, proliferation prevention
Aside from this, the DTRA is also helping the Philippines in securing and eliminating chemical weapons, precursors, and toxic industrial chemicals.
In April last year, the DTRA, through the Chemical Security and Elimination (CSE) Program, conducted several workshops on chemical transportation security with the Philippines where they completed a handbook on how to conduct security risk assessments and mitigation processes.
The DTRA worked with the Department of Trade and Industry to develop a strategic trade e-licensing platform that manages the registration and authorization of dual-use and other strategic goods. The tool helps strengthen the country’s export trade controls.
It also assists the Philippines in improving the government's capacity to prevent the trafficking of WMDs and WMD-related materials into the country through its Proliferation Prevention Program (PPP), an initiative that started in 2012.
The DTRA also installed equipment, radars, and cameras to enhance the surveillance capabilities of the National Coast Watch System (NCWS) and National Maritime Center (NMC), two inter-agency mechanisms focused on the establishment of a coordinated and coherent approach on maritime issues and maritime security operations in the country.
“It's important for all of us to care about security in the Southeast Asia region,” Pope concluded.