Manila: The Philippines has failed to adequately respond to problems of millions of Filipinos displaced by calamities, conflict, developments like mining, and militarisation because of lack of funds, absence of coordination between local and government units to offer long-term solutions, and lack of laws to implement peace talks and to ensure the rights of displaced people, a special envoy of the UN said.

“It appears that funding and attention to internally displaced people (IDPs) are waning,” Dr Chaloak Beyani, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of IDPs said after a 10-day visit to calamity-hit central Philippines and war-torn southern Philippines from June 31 to July 31.

A Zambian national and professor of International Law at the London School of Economics, Belani enumerated to Gulf News the inhuman conditions that he saw in temporary settlements for the majority of the 4.6 million people who were displaced by Typhoon Haiyan in central Philippines in November 2013. Some 120,000 were also displaced when members of the 47-year old Moro National Liberation Front. led by MNLF founder Nur Misuari, attacked Zamboanga City in September 2013.

The bunkhouses for displaced people in typhoon-hit central Philippines “do not create safety and protection challenges, particularly for women and girls who face threats, including sexual abuse and early pregnancy,” said Belani, adding, “Lack of adequate police presence [in temporary settlements] contributes to the overall feelings of increased insecurity.”

“Many families remain housed in collective bunkhouses that do not meet necessary minimum standards for the provision of basic needs and services. The provision of water, adequate sanitation and electricity remain seriously problematic [there],” assessed Beyani, adding that “privacy and dignity” are not given to people who are transferred twice to several temporary settlements.

Leaders and members of the 5,000 strong Filipino-Muslims who have been fighting the establishment of an open mining pit in Koronadal and Tampakan in South Cotabato, Mindanao “remain afraid that the project would proceed even if it was put on hold by the governor of South Cotabato”, said Belani.

“Members of 700 indigenous peoples living in facilities run by the United Church of Christ in the Philippines in Davao City complained of forced recruitment into pro-government paramilitary group, and their schools being occupied by government soldiers,” said Belani. They have been displaced by militarisation, following clashes between government soldiers and the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the 47-year old Communist Party of the Philippines.

Belani said he failed to visit places in Cotabato City and parts of Maguindanao because of clashes between government soldiers and Filipino-Muslim rebels, including renegade Filipino-Muslim groups there.

Displacement in the south can end with peace talks; the passage of a proposed law that will implement the 2014 pro-autonomy peace settlement between the Philippine government and the 38-year-old Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF); and implementation of two other pro-autonomy peace settlements forged by the government and the 46-year-old MNLF in Libya in 1976 and in Manila in 1996, other sources said.

Belani also called for the passage of a law called “Protecting the Rights of Internally Displaced Persons” to ensure the rights of people who are rampantly displaced by calamities, insurgencies, and mining projects in affected areas. Provisions of the proposed law were vetoed by President Benigno Aquino in 2013.

Deadly typhoons, earthquakes, and political clashes always occur in the Philippines.