She overcame polio and defeated a political dynasty to become governor of the second-largest province in the Philippines.  But Gov. Grace Padaca of Isabela, who will be receiving the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Governance at the end of August, may be facing her biggest challenge and risking her life by taking on the logging industry.

Thousands of her constituents are upset and hungry after Padaca started confiscating wood that was illegally cut in her province’s northern Sierra Madre wilderness, a global treasure of biodiversity.  It is a bold move that can threaten her popularity.  But instead of backing down, Padaca orders soldiers to march up a treacherous river in rebel territory to seize logs being stockpiled by illegal loggers.

Writer and correspondent Howie Severino and his I-Witness team (executive producer Noi Cuanang, cameraman Egay Navarro, edit supervisor JJ Villamarin, and researcher Cris Sto. Domingo) accompany these soldiers on this dangerous journey and together they ride the logs down the river.  Along the way, they see the gaunt faces of Padaca’s unlikeliest adversaries: “bugadors” or men who carry illegal logs to nearby villages.

“Si Gob at ang mga Bugador,” an I-Witness documentary, appears midnight tonight on GMA 7 (a day or two delayed on Pinoy TV).