100 Kibungan marijuana planters complete rehab

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Around 100 marijuana cultivators in Kibungan, this province have graduated from drug rehabilitation program of the government out of 240 drug surrenderees.

Among the list of marijuana cultivators who finished the rehabilitation program is a 72-year-old couple who admitted to have planted marijuana for almost two decades.

Kibungan Mayor Caesar Molitas witnessed the ceremony for the 240 rehabilitated drug law offenders and then declared Barangays Badeo and Takadang in his town cleared of marijuana plantations.

However, Molitas clarified that despite declaring the areas “cleared” of marijuana plantations, more work has to be done to declare them as “drug-free barangays.”

Citing reports from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Cordillera and the Benguet Provincial Police Office, Molintas said this is because there are still five drug personalities in the municipality.

Meanwhile, Senior Supt. Florante Camuyot, provincial police director, said the construction of farm-to-market roads in far-flung barangays where most of the marijuana cultivators come from, could boost security patrols, spur business and end marijuana trade in Benguet.