‘Big-time personalities in trade: Kalinga now Phl top marijuana ‘hotspot’

TABUK CITY, Kalinga – This province is now the country’s top marijuana “hotspot,” replacing Benguet, also one of six Cordillera provinces.

This, after Cordillera regional police director Chief Supt. Benjamin B. Magalong bared P156,810,000 worth of marijuana were seized recently from 6.59 hectares of marijuana plantation  in a five-day, tri-agency marijuana eradication operation in Mt. Bitulayungan, Loccong, Tinglayan, Kalinga.

An official of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency said big-time personalities could be involved in the illegal plants’ cultivation and sale. 

“Definitely, it is one of the biggest marijuana plantations discovered in the country. It is so far the biggest single haul this year,” said Ronald Allan Ricardo, PDEA director for the Cordillera Administrative Region.

“We thought Benguet is the biggest producer of marijuana until our discovery here,” he said.

He said they are now checking if some “big personalities” might have something to do with the marijuana plantations.

“We are not yet definite on our assessment. Maybe there are but we cannot yet name names, as they are not even included on our watch list or target list,” he said.

“We want to have strong evidence against them, not just mere hearsay, before we go to court,” he added.

Joint PDEA, police and Air Force operatives took a respite from uprooting thousands of marijuana plants June 21 after nearly five days of non-stop operations on Mt. Bitulayungan.

Senior Supt. Froilan Perez, Kalinga police director, said the joint operatives, backed by two Air Force helicopters, have so far uprooted at least P156 million worth of fully grown marijuana plants from a six-hectare plantation in Tinglayan town.

At least 733,800 ready-to-harvest marijuana plants were earlier uprooted and burned on Mt. Bitulayungan where a police helicopter crash-landed on June 19 while conducting an aerial marijuana eradication survey.

Mt. Bitulayungan lies near the border of Kalinga and Mt. Province.  

Two Air Force helicopters joined police and PDEA operatives in raiding marijuana plantations in Tinglayan town.

Ricardo, said P156 million worth of marijuana plants were uprooted from more than five-hectare plantation sites in Mt. Bitulayungan.

Since Tuesday, the operatives have been scouring the hinterlands of the village where marijuana plantations were discovered during an aerial marijuana eradication survey.

The operations also cost the Philippine National Police one of its few active air assets, the Robinson R44 helicopter, which crashed into the mountain on June 19.

Supt. Oliver Emmodias, chief of operations of the Cordillera police; Chief Insp. Dexter Vitug, pilot; and PO3 Jude Edwin Duque, co-pilot, were injured in the incident.

“If I have to make a conservative estimate, no less than 15 hectares of marijuana plantations are being maintained in the area,” Ricardo said.

Perez said the mountain area  can be reached by foot for at least eight hours from the nearest access road.

“According to our chief of police in Tinglayan, seven days more would not be enough to rid the entire mountain of the illegal plants,” he said.

A report from the regional police headquarters in Camp Dangwa, Benguet said 50,500 square meters of marijuana plantation were destroyed by police personnel, anti-narcotics agents and the military during a 4-day massive marijuana eradication in  six plantation sites at Mount Bitulayungan, barangay Luccong, Tinglayan.

Magalong said the six marijuana plantation sites were planted with 733, 800 fully grown marijuana plants.

He said government troops composed of personnel from the Regional Anti-Drug Special Operations Task Group (RAIDSOTG), Kalinga Provincial Police Office, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Cordillera and the Philippine Army discovered at the sites 75 kilos of dried marijuana leaves, 49 kilos of pulverized marijuana leaves and 85 kilos of marijuana seeds.