Philippines: Red Cross boosts capacity in Mindanao’s Sulu province

Manila/Geneva (ICRC) – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the
Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) today inaugurated new premises for the local PNRC
chapter in Jolo, the capital of Sulu province in the southern Philippines’ Autonomous Region
in Muslim Mindanao. The province is one of the areas worst affected by armed conflict and
one of the most impoverished in the country.

Representatives of civil society, local government, the armed forces, the Moro National
Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) attended the event.
“The chapter’s improved facilities are intended to enhance the response of the PNRC and
ICRC to the growing needs of Sulu communities,” said Felipe Donoso, the ICRC’s head of
delegation in the Philippines. “These communities are suffering the effects of repeated armed
clashes between the armed forces of the Philippines and insurgent groups.”

In its capacity as a neutral and independent organization, and in cooperation with the
PNRC’s Jolo chapter, the ICRC provided medical care, food, shelter, essential household
items and water and sanitation facilities to more than 48,000 displaced civilians in the
province in 2007. The actual number of civilians forced to flee their homes by the armed
conflict is probably much higher.

The ICRC and PNRC were able to provide this humanitarian aid on the basis of security
guarantees given by the parties to the conflict. In response to mounting humanitarian needs
in Sulu, the ICRC has been gradually stepping up its support to the PNRC since 2005.
The ICRC consistently reminds the parties to the armed conflict of their obligations under
international humanitarian law. In particular, it calls on them to respect and protect the civilian
population and to allow the distribution of humanitarian relief in accordance with the
population’s needs and without discriminating on the basis of politics, race, religion or sex.

Both the ICRC and PNRC remain committed to providing humanitarian assistance and
protection for the victims of armed conflict and other situations of violence.