Tata gives hand signals for his men to drop to the rainforest floor as the searing whine of a chainsaw fades, their mission to save a critically endangered piece of paradise in the Philippines suddenly on hold. Former paramilitary leader Efren ‘Tata’ Balladares has been leading the other flip-flop-wearing environmental crusaders up and down the steep mountains of Palawan island for the past 15 hours in the hunt for illegal loggers.
They could also be forgiven for being frozen with fear: team members have been murdered to stop their operations and others bear scars from the razored teeth of the chainsaws they seek to confiscate. But with their targets so close, just a short sprint through ferns and other scrappy lowland rainforest foliage, the adrenaline of the hunt’s imminent climax is surging through them.
As the para-enforcers approach, Tata’s voice roars for the first time all day, ‘Stop. Stop. Stop. Face down. Face down.’ The loggers, young men wearing ragged clothes, similar to their new foes, that indicate mirrored lives of poverty, are stunned and simply stand in bewilderment or fear, their machete holding arms limp by their sides.
‘Do you have a permit for the lumber? Is the chainsaw registered?’ The loggers, squatting on the fallen tree trunk with the para-enforcers holding their shoulders, meekly respond in the negative. The para-enforcers give the loggers a receipt documenting the confiscation of the chainsaw and scurry back into the forest.
But later, during a short meal break of rice and dried fish after the confiscation, Tata breaks down as he despairs at the corruption that led him to become a civilian para-enforcer. Palawan is often called the Philippines’ last ecological frontier, as it is home to most of the nation’s remaining forests and its waters are renowned as a global biological hotspot. With its stunning limestone cliffs, lagoons with turquoise waters and long stretches of untouched beaches, top tourist magazines rate Palawan one of the world’s most beautiful islands.
They call their movement Direct Action Inc.. They use a little-known citizen’s arrest law, plus the support of local communities, to confiscate chainsaws, mining drills, cyanide fishing gear and any other equipment used to destroy Palawan’s environment.
Also crammed in the front yard is a large boat that had been used to transport illegal logs to Malaysia, and two heavy drills the size of lounge room sofas that were confiscated for mining gold. Home-made rifles and pistols seized from illegal loggers and fishermen hang on the walls inside the small, four-room headquarters.