KIBUNGAN, Benguet, Philippines - At least P36 million worth of marijuana plants were destroyed by combined police operatives and anti-narcotics agents during a two-day marijuana eradication operation in 14 plantation sites located in Barangay Tacadang here last Wednesday. The 14 marijuana plantation established in Sitio Bulalacao and Mt. Oten, Tacadang here were set on fire, said Senior Superintendent Roberto Quinto Soriano, deputy regional director for operations of the Police Regional Office (PRO) in the Cordillera. Soriano said the destroyed marijuana fields included 162,000 fully-grown plants, 39,500 seedlings and 18,000 stalks of dried marijuana leaves. The discovery of the plantation sites was an offshoot of an extensive surveillance operation conducted by the law enforcement agencies in order to reduce the cultivation of marijuana in the far flung areas in the province. Tacadang is a remote barangay of this town which is located in the tri-boundaries of La Union, Benguet and Ilocos Sur and a known marijuana cultivation area. Soriano said the cooperation of the public in reporting the presence of marijuana plantation sites in the province is instrumental in helping the campaign of the government in reducing the proliferation of the illegal hemp which is serving as a major source of livelihood of most residents living in the remote areas.
With the discovery of marijuana plantation sites in this town and the nearby towns of Kapangan and Bakun, the effort of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) to eradicate the illegal hemp is in vain considering that more farmers prefer to plant marijuana as it commands a higher price in the market compared to the alternative crops being proposed for cultivation. (Dexter See)
