A bugador has one word for why he does not resent the policies of the governor. She is “government.” No sarcasm there, just the respect for this lady whose marked physical inability makes her a superwoman in reverse. The governor denies invincibility. Her constituents seem to believe in her super strength and courage to teach the people the real meaning of Nature.

“Huwag masanay sa mali.” Do not get used to doing the wrong thing. The translation does not capture the wisdom and principle in that line uttered by the governor. People everywhere have become comfortable with ethics of relativity, the “it depends” reasoning. People have gotten used to tapping the forest resource as if it was interminable. The lesson is really simple. The forest is finite. Abuse it and we suffer. Will the people looking to the forest for livelihood understand the logic of this reasoning? If we follow the governor, they just have to.

The governor here of course is Gov. Grace Padaca, who just received the Magsaysay Award for Government Service last Sunday, creating even more pressure -- or motivation -- to stay true to her vow to stop logging in the northern Sierra Madre. Standing in her path are several thousand bugadors, hardy men from her province who make a living off forest destruction -- they help cut down the trees and saw these into planks which they float down running rivers to middlemen in the plains. "Gob" will simply have to find a suitable livelihood for these men and their families, or she may be facing social unrest and rebellion, words that can't be taken too lightly in a province that's considered the cradle of the NPA.

Speaking of Padaca and the bugadors, a sound bite was missing from our aired documentary in which she talks about why she couldn't just give in to the pleas of her impoverished wood-dependent provincemates. Dug out of my draft, here is the sound bite (TV parlance for quote):

Howie Severino: Paano kung sabihin sa inyo na mas binigyan niyo ng halaga ang puno kesa sa mga kababayan ninyo?
Gov. Padaca: Hindi lang kasi sila ang kababayan ko. Sabihin na nating, sabi nga nila, 16,000- sabihin mo na 60,000 people. Sabihin mo nang 100,000 people ang umaasa dito sa pangangahoy. Pero kami ay mayroong population na 1.5 M, 60 percent of these, farmers. We’re talking here of 900,000 as compared to 100,000. So kung pag-uusapan natin ang kapakanan ng mamamayan, eh siyempre, mas papangalagaan ko ‘yung mas maraming mapapahamak. Sa bibig na rin ng isa sa mga kapitan lumabas, na sila ay naging biktima ng tagtuyot, kaya nawalan sila ng aanihin sana last year. At tsaka hindi lang iyon. Lagi silang biktima ng pagbaha. Eh saan ba natin iuugnay ‘yung mga ganoong klase ng nangyayari sa ating panahon, sa ating kalikasan, kung hindi din sa ginagawa natin?

Full disclosure: Several months ago, Gov. Padaca called to ask me to connect her with an environmental NGO that could help advise her on her illegal logging campaign. I connected her with Attorney Asis Perez of Tanggol Kalikasan who has had success with advising local governments in Quezon province in its environmental law enforcement efforts. I had previously only spoken with Gov. Padaca once. Atty. Perez has since been advising her on Padaca's current campaign on the Abuan River in Isabela.