THE aggressive marijuana eradication conducted since the assumption of Brigadier General R’win Pagkalinawan as director of the Police Regional Office–Cordillera (PRO-COR) has yielded some P23,201,300 worth of marijuana and the filing of cases against four identified cultivators.

Benguet Police Provincial Office (BPPO) initiated the most number of eradication with 11 operations destroying marijuana plants worth P21,041,300 followed by Mountain Province Provincial Police Office (MPPO) destroying P2,160,000 illegal weeds.

There were 44 successful police operations which resulted in the arrest of 40 drug suspects and the seizure of 68 sachets of suspected “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride), two sachets of marijuana, 30 mililiters of marijuana oil, three marijuana tubes, six marijuana bricks, 68,924 marijuana plants, 2,100 seedlings, 9,500 marijuana stalks and 46.51 kilograms of marijuana with an overall total DDB value of P23,422,598.44.

Among the 40 individuals arrested, two were recently apprehended in a buy bust operation in Tabuk City, Kalinga.

The suspects were identified as Ian Terry Ladyong Olat, who was apprehended in the afternoon of February 29 at Francisco, Dagupan West, Tabuk City, Kalinga, while Philip Louie Peralta was cornered at Zone 4, Bangued, Abra in the night of February 28.

Confiscated from Olat are P1,000 drug bust money, motorcycle key, a cellular phone, and one small sachet containing suspected shabu with a Dangerous Dugs Board (DDB) value of P925.48.

Peralta on the other hand yielded three sachets containing suspected shabu, P7,520 cash money, knife and a motorcycle.

PRO-COR vows to make its presence felt in the Cordillera through an intensified fight against illegal drugs and to raise the level of anti-drug operations higher.

“PRO-COR will continue to perform its mandate with equal fervor and intensity to keep the communities safe from the dangerous drugs,” Pagkalinawan said.