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Wednesday, June 25, 2003
Cops to target areas with shabu, marijuana
By Cheryl Cruz
BAGUIO -- Cordillera police have launched a massive campaign dubbed Implan Sang-Banat against illegal drugs and marijuana cultivation in provinces where they were seen to have proliferated.
Senior Supt. Gabriel Martin, chief of PRO-CAR's Regional Directorial Staff, said continuous marijuana eradication operations will be specifically conducted in the provinces of Kalinga, Ifugao and Benguet.
The police would also target street peddlers of methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu in the capital towns of Bangued in Abra and La Trinidad in Benguet as well as the province's northern municipalities of Buguias and Mankayan.
Martin also reported that police in the region and the local Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency have confiscated a total of P101,616,225 worth of marijuana and P31,589 worth of shabu for the first six months of this year.
Some P63.59M of the drugs were seized and eradicated in Benguet, P32.15M in Kalinga, P5.4M in Ifugao, P460,000 in Mt. Province, P23,000 in Baguio and P9,000 in Abra.
"Cordillera is significantly the number one marijuana producing region in the country as manifested by hundreds of hectares of plantations being destroyed in the provinces of Kalinga, Ifugao and (northern) Benguet, although based on statistics, shabu is more introduced in the region than marijuana," he added.
Martin said that "because of shabu addiction, the volume of heinous crimes in the region has greatly increased."
Through the Sang-Banat operation, PRO-CAR will step up its all-out and sustained anti-narcotics campaign to neutralize drug personnel from street-level pushers to big-time drug lords, smugglers and syndicates; investigate and prosecute drug offenders; provide for the treatment and rehabilitation of drug dependents; empower the barangay as self-policing entity against drug menace; and enter into national cooperation in all aspects of anti-drug operations, Martin said.
He also stressed that "Implan Sang-Banat, which was launched Monday, sets forth the concept of operations, operational guidelines and tasks of all PNP units and offices in the total fight against illegal drugs and in integrating the activities of concerned national government agencies and local government units from the regional down to the barangay level."
Records showed that the police conducted from January to June this year 56 buy-bust operations, 12 marijuana eradications and six checkpoints.
Some 85 persons were also arrested during these operations, with 30 of them apprehended by Baguio law enforcers, 28 by the Abra Provincial Police Office, 14 persons by Benguet provincial police, four by Ifugao police, three by Kalinga police and two persons by elements of the Mt. Province police.
Benguet Gov. Raul Molintas earlier said the province would also file criminal charges against owners of private lands found out to be planted with marijuana.
He noted that the filing of necessary charges against landowners is one of the best options in the determined attempt to discourage villagers from cultivating marijuana as a source of livelihood.
The governor, on the other hand, appealed to Malacaņang to help the Benguet provincial government provide long-term livelihood opportunities to farmers in areas earlier identified as sites of marijuana plantations.
He said that the lack of basic government services in the remote areas of the region and the rest of country is luring farmers to become involved in illegal drug activities. Sun.Star Baguio
(June 25, 2003 issue)
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