Cordi peace council sets anti-marijuana top drive

P485-M drugs seized 

By Pamela T. Geminiano

BAGUIO CITY— The Cordillera Regional Peace and Order Council approved anti-marijuana campaign as main program to eradicate marijuana plant cultivation and to prevent illegal drugs from reaching the region's urban areas.
    “I suggest the anti-marijuana campaign should be included in the 2022-2025 flagship program of the council so that we can focus on and develop plans and strategies to suppress the plant cultivation in potential growing areas, as well as minimize the product availability here in the region,” said Araceli San Jose, regional director of Dept. of the Interior and Local Government Cordillera and head secretariat of CRPOC during the CRPOC second quarter meeting.
    CRPOC chairman and Baguio City mayor Benjamin Magalong supported the proposal saying the council needs to orchestrate a permanent solution to get rid of marijuana cultivation in the Cordillera and provide solutions and livelihood to those communities that will be affected by the program.
    He lauded the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Cordillera for being relentless in its anti-illegal drug operations especially uprooting of marijuana in cultivation sites and in its drive to put a stop to the illegal drug trade.
    Based on the latest data of PDEA Cordillera, authorities seized a total of P485.36 million worth of narcotics across the region including marijuana.
    The anti-illegal drug campaign is one of the flagship programs of the Duterte administration.
    Meanwhile, Tinglayan, Kalinga mayor Sacrament Gumilab thanked the CRPOC for its move to include the anti-marijuana campaign as one of its flagship programs adding,
    “I am very happy, the RPOC recognizes the need to sit together and develop a comprehensive plan to identify the root causes and formulate solutions to address the problem,” he said.
    Mayor Magalong who served as CRPOC chairperson 2019-2022 was awarded a plaque of recognition by officials and members of the CRPOC for his “genuine commitment and dedicated leadership as CRPOC chairperson which led to the attainment of the council's goals and objectives and realization of an inclusive and sustainable peace in the region.”
    In her message, RD San Jose lauded mayor Magalong for helping to reduce rape cases and incidents by 15% per quarter, for his unwavering support for the continuation of peaceful negotiations between the Butbut and Betwagan tribes, and for preventing any election-related violence and abuses order to achieve safe and peaceful election.
    She also cited Magalong’s feat in achieving 80% target of the vaccination rate of eligible population in the region.
    "His defining leadership as vice-chairperson of the Cordillera Regional Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (RTF-ELCAC) to institutionalize the whole-of-nation approach in the region and to ensure the goals and objectives of CRPOC are exemplary recognized," she said. – PTMG-DILG-CAR