Friday, September 21, 2007 Badian ‘supplier’ of MJ: police chief By Mia E. Abellana Sun.Star Staff Reporter
WHILE marijuana is mostly cultivated in the mountain villages of the southwestern town of Badian, Cebu, its residents are not the main customers of those who plant them.
Harvested plants are dried and transported to the neighboring province of Oriental Negros, said Badian Police Chief Rodrigo Orbigoso.
Mayor Carmencita Librando-Lumain said the mountains of Badian produce a different kind of marijuana, one that is more potent than other varieties.
“These plants are smaller than the ones planted in the 1990s. They also smell better,” Lumain told a Sun.Star Cebu news team.
Lumain said she has made it a point to pursue the campaign against illegal drugs relentlessly, as she has seen how it destroyed her brother’s life.
Her younger brother, Leonar-do Librando, died in December because of his addiction. He was 55.
So when members of the Badian Police Station decide to launch anti-drug operations such as uprooting of marijuana plants in the timberlands, she said she provides them with funds, food and transportation for the operation to succeed.
Lumain said that sometimes, she had to dig into her own pockets just to support the campaign.
Burned
Yesterday, more than 3,000 marijuana plants were burned in an empty lot with members of the town’s council and representatives from the Cebu Provincial Police Office and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) 7 present.
Orbigoso and a team trekked three hours to Sitio Butong, Barangay Basiao last week to uproot the plants, which were scattered in four lots.
Orbigoso admitted it was difficult to pinpoint the cultivators of the plants as no one owns the land it was planted on.
While there were houses nearby, he said they were at a distance from where the plants were found.
In Badian, Barangays Basiao, Alawijao and Patong are the known areas where marijuana is planted. The terrain in these areas is difficult.
Incline
In last week’s raid, Orbigoso said the incline was so steep that they had to rappel upward to get to their destination.
At the top, they discovered a plateau with trees planted around the marijuana.
While most of these plants reach five feet tall, Orbigoso said this variety was much shorter and more difficult to spot.
What is surprising for Mayor Lumain is that the only way to earn a living in these parts is to plant simple crops. But she noted there were residents who lived in concrete houses.
To discourage marijuana cultivators, Orbigoso hopes roads leading to these villages will be built.
Until that time comes, he suggests having a police force in the area to keep watch.
