By BOOMA CRUZ
THE smile vanishes as soon as she hears a deafening roar across the Abuan River in Isabela province.
“I hate that sound,” former Isabela governor Grace Padaca says. “They’re really back.”
“They” are hatcheros or chainsaw operators who are indeed back in business, cutting age-old trees at the northern Sierra Madre.
It’s not only the return of the illegal loggers that worries Padaca, whose reform movement “Kaya Natin”—which includes Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo and former Pampanga governor Ed Panlilio—supported President Benigno Aquino III in the last election. She doesn’t see the reforms promised by the President during the campaign being fulfilled.
Looking at the pieces of timber scattered along the Abuan watershed, Padaca remembers a mayor who was one of her original allies. She says: “Pero dahil sa involved siya sa illegal logging e di isa siya sa pina-raid ko. Nag-iisa na nga siyang kakampi namin na original, naging kalaban pa (But since he was involved in illegal logging, we had his place raided. He was the only one of our original allies. Now he is an adversary).”
The parting of ways was made more costly by the fact that the mayor headed an area whose congressman was an ally of her powerful political enemy, the Dy dynasty.
Padaca left the provincial capitol after her loss to third-term congressman Faustino Dy III last May. Gunning for her third term, Padaca lost by only 3,438 votes in a hotly contested gubernatorial race that is now the subject of an electoral protest filed by the former governor. Her entire ticket was wiped out by the formidable Dy-Albano alliance.
Described as one of the Davids in Philippine politics, Padaca ended the 40-year reign of the Dys in Isabela in 2004 with a lead of more than 40,000 votes. She trounced another Dy in 2007.
Crippled by polio at three, Padaca won in 2008 the Ramon Magsaysay Award for government service, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in Asia.
Now out of the capitol, one of Padaca’s fears is the return of illegal logging in Isabela. She feels it is just a matter of time before bogadors or timber transporters have a field day in transporting downstream contraband timber through the Abuan River.
Abuan River has been used to transport illegally cut logs from the forests of Sierra Madre for decades. About 1.8 million board feet worth more than P30 million—the biggest haul of illegal timber in the history of the Philippines—was confiscated here by the provincial government of Isabela at the height of Padaca’s anti-logging campaign.
Thousands of bogadors lost their livelihood during the capitol’s anti-logging operations. This cost the former governor a lot of votes in the succeeding elections. Her 40,000 lead in 2004 was whittled down to 17,000 votes in 2007.
A popular, hardhitting radio broadcaster before entering politics, the feisty Padaca has made Manila her home base to distance herself from Isabela politics. She enjoys the freedom of being an ordinary citizen but feels sorry for her province whenever she hears bad news from supporters and concerned citizens.
The new administration has reportedly changed some of the major policies implemented by Padaca. Foremost is the additional P3 per kilo subsidy from the capitol budget for the purchase by the National Food Authority of palay and corn from the farmers.
Sources say the current subsidy has been reduced to only P2 and covers only corn and not palay. Isabela is considered the rice and corn granary of northern Philippines.
Padaca counts the increase in the income of farmers due to the additional subsidy as her biggest achievement. With her departure from the capitol, farmers rue that the old prices of corn and palay are back again.
Grappling with mixed emotions about her recent visit to her province, she says: “Ayoko kasing lumalim ang mga observation ko. Kasi nga pag nakakakita ako, pressure sa akin ‘yun to do something (I don’t want to know more because if I do, I am pressured to do something).”
Padaca had already texted President Aquino to ask about the pending appointments of corrupt environment officers she had removed while in office and the retention of police officials allegedly involved in vote-buying.
According to her, the President used to answer her text messages, but today their SMS conversations have become few and far between. Padaca understands that the President cannot answer all text messages he receives.
Padaca’s concern over the performance of Philippine National Police provincial director Jimmy Rivera, particularly what she claims was his open bias for the Dys and the Albanos during the election, has been the subject of so many letters and followups with then Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno and PNP chief Jesus Verzosa.
It was the first issue that the former governor raised with Secretary Robredo who referred the matter to Undersecretary Rico Puno, the official Aquino assigned to take charge of police matters at the Department of Interior and Local Government.
Padaca personally delivered her letter to Puno together with a note from Robredo. No action has been taken.
The former governor does not hide her discomfort—and, at times, disgust—with the agenda of some people close to the President.
“Ibang klase talaga. Kung paanong from one administration to another, kayang-kayang mag-reinvent ng kanilang sarili ang mga masamang damo para laging ang gusto pa rin nila ang nangyayari (They’re really something. They reinvent themselves with every new administration so their agenda can be fulfilled),” she adds, without naming names.
Padaca feels strongly about a number of issues that are apparently not a priority in the Aquino administration. One such concern is jueteng.
As governor, Padaca fought hard against jueteng but failed to eradicate it in the province. All efforts to stop jueteng proved futile because of Malacanang’s alleged support to the illegal numbers game.
Padaca sums up the problem by comparing jueteng to water flowing. She says squeezing a portion of the hose to stop the flow will not do the trick.
“You just need the President to close the faucet, and it will stop,” she says.
Despite the many missteps of the new administration, Padaca is still hopeful that the President will be able to govern effectively and immediately address pressing issues such as illegal logging and gambling.
“Malaki ang pag-asa ko kay President Noy (Aquino). Kung effective president sana siya, kahit di na ako mag-governor. Sana magamit niya ang power niya to do things (I have high hopes for President Noy. If he turns out to be an effective president, I don’t have to be governor. I hope he is able to use his power to put these things in order),” she says.
Padaca believes the President and his men are in a period of adjustment and need a little more time to settle into their new jobs.
She cites her own experience as a newbie in politics. “I could not have been expected to hit the ground running, literally and figuratively,” she says with a hearty laugh.