JOINT anti-narcotics agents from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Cordillera and Kalinga Provincial Office recently uprooted P5,082,000 worth of marijuana in Tinglayan, Kalinga.
In Barangay Buscalan, authorities burned 23,500 fully grown marijuana plants worth P4,700,000 were sourced from seven cultivation sites covering 2,720 square meters.
In Barangay Bugnay, government troops torched 1,550 fully grown marijuana plants and 1,800 marijuana seedlings that were uprooted from four plantation sites covering 607 square meters. The Dangerous Drugs Board valued the illegal hemp to be P382,000.
The anti-illegal drug operation came days after law enforcers put up in smoke some P17,000,000 worth of marijuana in the same municipality.
PDEA-Cordillera information officer lawyer Joseph Calulut said the agency’s drive to destroy marijuana cultivation sites in the region will be relentless as it will continue to monitor areas that have been considered as breeding grounds for the prohibited plant.
During a recent Regional Peace and Order Council meeting in Baguio City, the movement or conveyance of marijuana coming from the cultivation areas in the hinterlands of Tinglayan-Kalinga, Benguet, Ifugao and Mountain Province still finds its way to other areas in the country while the supply line of “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride) entering the Cordillera have been identified to be coming from Central Luzon, National Capitol Region, New Bilibid Prisons, and Calabarzon area through the use of public utility buses, privately rented and owned vehicles by these illegal drug traders.
PDEA have uprooted a total of 55,355.952 grams of marijuana, 73,529 grams of stalks, 292,233 pieces of plants, 44.67 milliliters of hash oil, 2,300 pieces of seedlings, 294.24 grams of hashish, and .903 grams of cocaine surrendered by a security officer of a school in Baguio City.
The report added since 2002 to the present, 2090 cases have been filed, 292 convicted, 348 dismissed, 128 acquitted, 760 cases resolved, three dismissal, 29 archived, and 1,290 pending cases with a conviction rate of 38.02 percent which is number five in the country.
The Regional Drug agency also reported 742 cleared barangays by the oversight committee with 66 barangays being validated due to the resurgence of illegal drug activities, with eight barangays affected, six coming from Baguio City and two coming from Benguet.