MANILA, Philippines ? When she left a lucrative career at a Makati law firm and moved back home to Bacolod City in 2003, Ma. Aleta Nuñez,32, traded her high-heeled pumps for open-toed sandals and flats. A few weeks later, she noticed that her shoe size grew bigger. Her feet were telling her she had stepped into bigger shoes.

In Bacolod, she started out as a part-time teacher at the University of St. La Salle and a volunteer for its law center, handling its environment desk that dealt with sensitive and high profile cases. This led Nuñez to work with persons and communities for the protection of the environment in Negros.

?In law school, I learned that I am an officer of the court, not an employee beholden to any paying client. I have to uphold the rule of law and render public service at all times,? she said.

Seeing her competence in dealing with environment cases, the university set up the Institute of Environmental Governance and named her its director.

Negros Occidental is home to three protected areas: the Mt. Kanlaon National Park, where the active volcano is located, the Sagay Marine Reserve, which is the country?s second largest marine protected area next to Tubbattaha Reef, and the North Negros National Park, which is home to endemic flora and fauna.

That same year, Nuñez joined the local government as one of its lawyers. Her training led her to take a special interest in the environmental concerns of Negros Occidental.

The province?s vigilance paid off. Last year it was honored with the Green Heroes Wall Shield by the London-based Green Organization. In 2006 it also received the Green Apple Award for environmental best practices from the Green Organization at the House of Commons in London. The group said the Negrenses have had ?quite a turnaround of lifestyle to reforest their lands and become soldiers for their environment.?

As a legal officer of the province, Nuñez has lent her expertise with respect to its environmental concerns. Her work involves drafting ordinances on the environment as well as training environment officers and advocates.
She takes the responsibilities in stride.

?One verse in the most influential book in my life comes to mind,? Nuñez explains. ?To whom much is given, much is required,? she said adding that she was just giving back the blessings she got, among them finishing law at the University of the Philippines in 1995.

Nuñez said her family who consider truth, fairness and justice as principles to be upheld, inspired her to become a lawyer. Both her parents were educators, while she worked part-time in the Civil Service Commission and volunteered in paralegal organizations even while she was taking up law. Assisted by their law professor, she and her classmates filed a case to have the Manila Bay cleaned up.

Nuñez is a current fellow-elect of the Ford International Fellowship Program, which will enable her to earn a Master of Law degree in any university in the Philippines or abroad this year. She wants to specialize in environment law because she wants to ?confidently and credibly give back to the community and the environment? what she has learned.

Despite her busy schedule, she finds time for her private law practice. She handles criminal and labor cases as well as corporate and family law as an associate of the Velencia Ciocon Dabao Dionela Pandan and Rubica Law Office in Bacolod City.

Aside from lawyering, Nuñez keeps her balance by joining the Philippine Foundation of Christ Youth in Action.

Swimming and diving and seeing first hand how her work has kept the reefs healthy is probably the best reward that keeps her going. Women?s Feature Service

Nuñez is one of the nominees to the Modess ?Aim High, Pinay? search which honors high-achieving Filipinas. The search ends this month with ten winners announced in May.