Kalinga marijuana plantation destroyed; 8 druggies nabbed

TINGLAYAN, Kalinga -- Another marijuana plantation was discovered and destroyed here recently while eight pushers and users were arrested in simultaneous anti-illegal drugs operations in the region, according to the Police Regional Office-Cordillera.

Chief Supt. Rolando Nana, regional director, said some 12,300 fully grown marijuana plants worth an estimated P2.58 million on five plantation sites in Barangay Butbut proper, Tinglayan, Kalinga, were uprooted and torched last Sept. 27, under the implementation of Oplan Manganop and Oplan Linis Barangay of the Kalinga Provincial Police Office.

Meantime, three drug suspects were arrested in separate operations in the region.

In La Trinidad, Benguet, Arjay Manuel Bautista, 32, was arrested in his residence where a buy-bust operation was conducted.

Bautista yielded two sachets of shabu and marked P1,000 bill.

In Bangued, Abra, the police arrested Giovani Marzan Calicdan, 46, instructor, of Lagangilang town.

Confiscated from Calicdan were a sachet of shabu, ammunition, and marked peso bills used in the drug sting.

On Saturday, Julie Rose Sadia Galino, 30, a native of South Cotabato was arrested in her residence in Baguio City.

Confiscated from her were two sachets of shabu, and marked money.

Her two young children were turned over to the social Welfare department.

Still in Baguio City, five teenagers, including two minors, were apprehended by the police for smoking marijuana inside an unattended bus in Irisan.