MORE NEWS, ISABELA

Illegal loggers hatched plan to eliminate me -- Padaca
By Joan Capuna

ILAGAN, Isabela – Isabela Gov. Grace Padaca said illegal loggers have hatched a liquidation plot on her after their illegal activities were hard hit by her fight against the destruction of remaining forests of Isabela, including the Sierra Madre.

Padaca did not identity the illegal loggers plotting to eliminate her, but said that "Isabelinos knew who they are (illegal loggers) as they are the ones who denuded our forest for the last 50 years."

Padaca said unlike the persons behind the operations of jueteng, most of the illegal logging operators are local people."The threats we are receiving are from people we know and who know us. They know by now that we are serious in eradicating illegal logging."

The report on the assassination plot was confirmed by Catholic priest Fr. John Couvreur, head of the ecology desk of the social action apostolate of the Diocese of Ilagan.
The priest said he was also one of the targets of the supposed slay plot.

Recently, Couvreur and his group led a one-day hunger strike in the compound of the parish church in San Mariano town to dramatize their protest against the continued destruction of Isabela’s forest areas.

Couvreur said "a plan has been hatched to liquidate me and Governor Grace Padaca by hired killers because we put in danger the lucrative business of prominent people who are behind the illegal logging activities in the province."