Dispatches: Whitewashing Internal Displacement in the Philippines

Dispatches: Whitewashing Internal Displacement in the Philippines

By Carlos H. Conde
Researcher, Asia Division
Human Rights Watch

The Philippine government loves to put on a pretty face for visiting dignitaries. In May 2012, it rounded up and hid street children and others living along a highway in Manila when the Asian Development Bank’s board of governors met. In January, street dwellers were taken off Manila’s roads and brought to a resort, allegedly so Pope Francis wouldn’t see them.

It appears the government did it again in advance of the recent visit to Zamboanga City and Davao City of Chaloka Beyani, the United Nations special rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons (IDPs).

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