UNITED NATIONS – An estimated 100,000 people were displaced from their homes in the Philippines during 2006 as a result of armed conflict and human right abuses," the United Nations said this month.

It said the main displacement movements occurred in the southernmost island of Mindanao where, in two separate incidents, close to 70,000 people were forced from their homes in Maguindanao province following clashes between Muslim separatist rebels and security forces. It added that in "addition to these new displacements, which have been mainly temporary, tens of thousands of people were unable to return or are living in situations akin to displacement due to previous conflicts.’ It said the exact number of displacements cannot be figured accurately because of the frequent clashes and the fluidity of the situation.

The UN said that the World Food Program launched in July last year an emergency food operation to an estimated 120,000. The majority of IDPs, it said, were living in Muslim-populated areas of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), where most of the fighting between the government and insurgents of the MILF secessionist group has concentrated in the past few years and forced close to two million people from their homes since 2000. It said the destruction caused by years of fighting have further impoverished an already disadvantaged population, with the displaced particularly vulnerable to food insecurity, health risks and unemployment. It added the needs of IDPs are generally addressed as part of wider development and rehabilitation programmes conducted by the government in partnership with the United Nations and donor countries and institutions.