Master_thesis

In 1972, when Marcos declared martial law, the thrust of the government that time was
toward an economy based on an industrialized, export-oriented development model (Amado,
1994). To finance the infrastructure to support this model, the government extensively
resorted to large loans from transnational commercial banks, multilateral organizations and
the United States. At first, there were economic returns: an export processing zone was
opened, a range of additional investment incentives was created and GNP grew at an
average of almost 7 percent per year in the five years after declaration (U.S. Library of
Congress, n.d.). However, the internal governmental problems became increasingly visible
because of rampant mismanagement, corruption and fraud. Commodity prices slumped,
short-term credits became unavailable, and massive capital flight from the country trapped
the Philippines in an economic and political crisis (Amado, 1994). The country experienced
great social unrest as the balanced distribution of wealth resulted in the glaring division of
rich and poor. But because the Philippines has its own revolutionary tradition 13 (Alegre,
1996), NGOs started to organize themselves while sectoral alliances steadily grew especially
in the poor and marginalized sectors. Apolitical welfare agencies and private and corporate
foundations that had lost faith in government responded seriously to calls for social
responsibility. Even the Catholic and Protestant churches led regional groupings and
became focal points for church-based activism. In 1986, all of these social movements
peaked in a mass protest movement against Marcos dictatorship, leading to the famous
People’s Power Revolution and the overthrow of the regime.
After the 1986 Revolution, a new social climate arose for many social organizations with an
interest in environmental policy. Although social organizations were already evolving in the
Philippines during the Spanish era, the period after 1986 was identified as “golden age of
coalition-building” for POs and NGOs that were formed around specific sectors and issues
(Alegre, 1996). With the wave of democracy and the legitimacy given by the Aquino
government, these NGOs, POs and other social organizations became actors of country’s
policy development.
To illustrate this external perturbation with the emphasis on the NIPAS Act and the Revised
Forestry Code (in relation to the timeline in Fig.1), Fig.6 illustrates the two different periods
of socioeconomic and political conditions when the Revised Forestry Code and the NIPAS
13 This evolved during the three hundred years of Spanish colonization in the Philippines where there had been many secret
societies as well as peasant groups who were lobbying for recognition and separation from colonialists.
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