Police eradicate P26M marijuana in Benguet

BAKUN, Benguet -- Marijuana plants valued at PP26,706,000 were uprooted and burned by lawmen here and in neighboring town Kibungan last week.

Police said some 127,500 fully grown marijuana plants and 30,150 seedlings were destroyed in 26 cultivation sites.

The marijuana plantations were located in barangays Sinacbat and Kayapa of Bakun, and barangay Tacadang of Kibungan.

Anti-drug operating units were composed of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Cordillera, 1603rd and 1604th Police Provincial Mobile Group, Bakun and Kibungan police stations, and Provincial Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Group of the Benguet Police Provincial Office.

Following this, operatives conducted information dissemination on illegal drugs at at Legab Elementary School and Bakun Central National High School in Bakun.

In the Cordillera, the town of Tinglayan in Kalinga reportedly had the most number of marijuana plantations.

To stop or lessen marijuana cultivation in Tinglayan, the municipal government launched an alternative livelihood program on coffee Arabica production.

The government has given P4.5 million to Kapangan, P1.5 million to Kibungan and P1.5 million to Bakun as financial assistance for livelihoods that will serve as alternatives to marijuana cultivation.

Meanwhile, a text message led police Wednesday to a shipment of 30 kilos of dried marijuana leaves valued P1 million loaded in a passenger bus in Benguet.

Cordillera police director Chief Supt. Eugene Martin told newsmen the seizure of the marijuana was a product of Letter of Instruction Banat urging citizens to send information to police regarding illegal activities.

Martin said SPO3 Dencio Amponget Dayao, intelligence operative of the Regional Mobile Group received a text message that day about a shipment of dried marijuana leaves on board a BCMPCI passenger bus (AYD 854) plying the Bakun-Baguio City route.

Joint elements of the RMG, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and Benguet police conducted checkpoint operations at a bus terminal along Camp Dangwa in La Trinidad and flagged down the bus about 3:10 p.m. on Jan. 24.

The team confiscated two brown cartoons with “No¬noy Bravo” markings which yielded at least 10 bricks of marijuana neatly wrapped in a newspaper and brown masking tapes.