Between Dec. 16-18, Typhoon Washi struck the Philippines and left thousands dead in its wake. In Iligan, 750 died, and the town's mayor is convinced that the total would have been half as bad had it not been for a battering by "a tidal wave of logs"-illegally felled logs that had been stored in the hills surrounding Iligan.
"Iligan's timber tidal wave was formed by the potent combination of man's greed and nature's power," the BBC wrote on Sunday. "After several days of heavy rain, freshly cut logs and debris were swept off the mountains above Iligan" and practically bowled over entire villages.
Two months after the tragedy, Iligan's citizens are busy using chainsaws to claim their quota of lumber for rebuilding their homes. "I blame the loggers for this," Raphael Abuya, a retired driver, told the BBC. "If it was just water it would have flowed through and out to sea."
Illegal loggers function in the Philippines as a result of a complex and corrupt political system, the BBC wrote. Some logging is carried out using permits, but some of the country's citizens are disaffected and have turned to forming armed rebel groups that get funding from logging.
The full story can be read at the BBC.
