P20M WORTH OF MARIJUANA DESTROYED IN KALINGA

JOINT military and anti-narcotics operatives burned more than
P20-million worth of marijuana plants uprooted in Mt. Chumanchil, the
known marijuana plantation in Tinglayan, Kalinga last week.

Reports from the regional Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA)
showed combined elements of the 21st Infantry Battalion of the
Philippine Army and narcotics agents uprooted more than 100,000
fully-grown marijuana plants, which were eventually destroyed at the
plantation site.

But Senior Insp. Edgar Apalla, officer-in-charge of the PDEA-CAR, said
no marijuana cultivator was apprehended during the anti-marijuana
eradication. "One of our objective is to cause the arrest of marijuana
cultivators but all of them remain elusive," he added.

During the recent Luzon-wide illegal drugs summit in Baguio, top
narcotics officials stressed the all-out war against marijuana trade
in the Cordilleras and the rest of the country would set ground if
cultivators are also arrested and criminal charges be filed against
them.

Participants also suggested that the police and PDEA should file
appropriate charges against owners of lands planted to marijuana.

The burning of marijuana in Kalinga came just as the Ifugao Provincial
Police Office reported it has also destroyed almost P20-million worth
of marijuana plants and seedlings in 10 operations conducted this year.

Supt. Alexander Pumecha, Ifugao PPO director, told members of the
Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) that the destruction and
confiscation of 94,903 fully grown marijuana plants, 1.119 kilos of MJ
leaves and 900 grams of seedlings with a total illicit market value of
P19, 871,100 as well as the arrest of five persons engaged in illegal
drugs activities.

He said the successful marijuana eradications have resulted to the
decrease in the number of affected barangays in the province from 34
to only three, adding that out of the 31 drug personalities listed in
the drug watch list, 30 were also de-listed.

The Cordillera remains to be the number one source of marijuana
plants, supplying almost 70 percent of the total dope produce in the
country.

The Police Regional Office in the region, meanwhile, already
intensified its campaign against illicit drugs in support of the
national government's all-out war against drugs and in an attempt to
make the Cordillera a drug-free region.