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Monday, September 08, 2008
Tublay cops seize a ton of marijuana
KAPANGAN, Benguet -- Dangerous Drugs Board Secretary Vicente Sotto III has high hopes the silkworm industry in this town will be replicated in identified marijuana cultivations in the country.
His hopes were tainted, though, when a joint team of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and Tublay police intercepted a truck full of marijuana bricks and leaves, in a checkpoint in Tublay town.
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Sotto just handed a check to officials of this town for P2 million to construct additional breeding sites, insulation rooms, and the purchase of materials for the incubation of silk-producing worms. In the afternoon he went to the Tublay police office to inspect the contraband.
The contraband was intercepted around 7:30 a.m. of September 6. The Elf truck carrying the marijuana has been under surveillance for two months, said Senior Inspector Edward Esperanza, Tublay chief of police.
Tublay is about 45 minutes away from this town.
Neatly arranged sacks of sayote placed on top of and around the contraband were used to conceal the items. Esperanza said this is the biggest catch by the Tublay police so far.
The contraband weighs almost a ton or 946.5 kilograms, valued at P23,662,500. It is made up of 39 sacks of dried marijuana bricks (or a total of 468 bricks) plus 10 bundles of dried marijuana leaves.
The driver, Eugene Lingaling, remains under custody.
The development, Sotto said, should not deter efforts against illegal drugs. In his speech at the Municipal Hall grounds, Sotto assured officials and residents of this town that the government is ready to support efforts aimed at providing alternative livelihoods to marijuana cultivators.
Sotto said government is allotting P1.5 million worth of infrastructure for farm-to-market roads in Kapangan, and funds will also be allotted for Kibungan and Bakun for the same project. This is apart from the P500,000 the Benguet government has promised as its counterpart. Benguet Governor Nestor Fongwan said he will request the appropriation from the Provincial Board.
Kapangan, together with the towns of Kibungan, Bakun and Buguias are towns in Benguet province where plantations of marijuana are cultivated.
Impressed by the improving sericulture industry, Sotto said he is optimistic the project will succeed and will be replicated in Cebu and Bacolod, areas where mass marijuana cultivation is also rampant.
Sotto said he also yearns that silk produced here will be used as material for the creation of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's gown, once she delivers her State of the Nation Address (Sona) in 2009.
The weather in the Cordillera is conducive for the breeding of silk-producing worms, Sotto said. He added that the market for this is not only in the Philippines but also abroad.
Silk production here is limited to manufacture of raw silk. Mayor Roberto Canuto said with new equipment, they hope to also weave and create clothes or other materials from silk thread.
Senior Inspector Edgar Apalla, officer-in-charge of the PDEA-Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), said silk production is economically viable.
Compared to yacon production, silk promises higher income and there are available buyers for the produce.
The PDEA earlier introduced the planting of yacon as alternative to marijuana cultivation. Yacon is a root crop similar to turnips or singkamas and is believed to be a cure to diabetes. However, Apalla said the success of yacon production has yet to be seen because buyers are limited to local consumers only. (Rimaliza Opiña of Sun.Star Baguio/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Pampanga. (September 8, 2008 issue)
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