Internally displaced persons are hidden from UN expert

MANILA;   The government  hid internally
displaced persons prior to the inspection of
a United Nation (UN) rappoteur in ZAmboanga
City and Davao City last month ,according to
a report from New York Human Rights Watch.

Human Rights Watch Asia Division Researcher
Caros Conde said that hundreds of internally
displaced persons who have been staying in the
grandstand of the Don Joaquin F.Enriquze
Memorial sports Complex in Zamboanga City
have been asked by the government to leave
the complex on July 18 four days before US
Special Reporteur Chaloka Beyani  visit.
The government cited a need to repair the facillity
Conde noted that Beyani was disappointed
over the grandstand 's closure a few days before
his visit and hinted that it may have been a
deliberate attempt to whitewash its poor
conditions.

"The people who were staying at Zamboanga
City's grandstand were those who were displaced
due to  to the fighting between Moro National
Liberation Front rebels and government force 2013

"Many were relocated to sites where  basic
services such as water and power are lacking
or non-existent or far away from  their fields
or places  of work" Conde said in a statement
,adding that hundreds refused relocation and
chose to stay in the grandstand instead ..

In Davao City the police and the military
attempted to remove and return to their
villages some 700 displaced member of
indigenous group Ata Manobos who have
been living in a compound of a Protestant
church since May.

The attempt to supposedly "rescue "the Ata
Manobos was met with resistance and  failed
The members of the indigenous community
were displaced due to the presence of military
forces in their rural villages which led to fight
with the New People 's Army.
DAILY EXPRESS