Monday, April 30, 2007 P90 million marijuana burned
ABOUT P90 million worth of marijuana was uprooted and destroyed by combined police and military personnel in Tinglayan, Kalinga over the weekend.
Superintendent Oliver Enmodias, regional director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (Pdea) in Cordillera, said the eradication operation was conducted within a 15,000-square meter plantation at Mt. Bitolayongan, Loccong, Tinglayan, Kalinga on April 26.
Enmodias said his men and military personnel uprooted about 450,000 fully-grown marijuana plants.
He said a joint eradication operation was first conducted in Tinglayan from March 15 to 27, which resulted in the destruction of P21 million worth of the same cannabis sativa plants.
However, during the earlier operation, Enmodias said successive gunshots were heard, fired upon either directly or indirectly against their operating troops.
"It was assessed that marijuana cultivators or protectors in that area were in possession of high-powered firearms," he explained.
For that reason, they only uprooted and destroyed P21 million worth of marijuana and decided not to proceed to other target areas sighted at that time, which was located at the other side of the mountain, he said.
But, with the utilization of military helicopters, Enmodias said they returned on Thursday to finish the operation. (ENO)
