Cops destroy P112 M marijuana in Benguet

BAKUN, Benguet — At least P112.2 million worth of marijuana plants were successfully destroyed by combined police and anti-narcotics agents during a week-long marijuana eradication operation in 32 plantation sites in Barangays Kayapa here and Tacadang in nearby Kibungan town recently.

Chief Insp. Edgar Apalla, regional director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in the Cordillera, said the marijuana eradication operation was a product of the collaborative efforts of regiona; police and the PDEA to rid the region of its moniker as top marijuana producer in the country.

Lawmen destroyed 1,313,780 pieces of marijuana seedlings valued at P52.6 million and 298,900 pieces of fully-gown marijuana plants with a projected market value of P59.6 million.

Chief Supt.Orlando Pestano, Cordillera police director, said the marijuana eradication operation was done in separate plantation sites in Barangays Kayapa, Bakun and Tacadang, Kibungan.

The months of November to March are considered the harvest season for marijuana, thus, police and anti-narcotics operatives are now working double time to eradicate whatever plants that are growing in identified sites in the remote areas of the tri-boundaries of Benguet, Ilocos Sur and La Union and in Ifugao, Mountain Province and Kalinga.

However, no marijuana cultivator was arrested during the operation because they were escaped from the scene before alemen could arrive.

Most of the uprooted marijuana seedlings and fully-grown plants were burned on site while a portion of the same was taken by the authorities as evidence. – Dexter A. See