Winner: National Book Award for Journalism (1993), out of print
THE PHILIPPINE forests have been the most coveted among its natural resources, and the few who have been granted the privilege of taming portions of them have reaped power and wealth.
Power from the Forest is the story of logging in the Philippines, the story of the exercise of power—who wields it, who beenfits from it and how.
The dangerous intertwine of forests and politics was most glaring under Ferdinand Marcos. In bestowing upon himself the pwoer to grant and revoke logging licenses, Marcos deftly used the forests as a political tool.
The insurgency war had bred new logging interests—the rebels and the military who have made the forests their battleground and their sources of income.
But amidst this gloomy foreboding, there are shafts of light. The indigenous peoples and rural folk who have lived in or around these forests are starting to stir as well as a growing number of nongovernmental organizations and concerened individuals.
Marites Dañguilan-Vitug harnesses her investigative skills to tell us the tragic story of the Philippine forests, the people who continue to plunder them and those who are trying to protect them.
© 1993, 296 pages, ISBN 971-8686-01-0