MARIJUANA INDUSTRY FLOURISHING IN KALINGA

DESPITE the yearly uprooting exercises, there is apparently no real
intention on the part of the police and military to stop for good the
marijuana industry in Mount Chumanchil in Butbut, Tinglayan, Kalinga.

Consider the following:

(1) The police know that high-tech marijuana processing facilities exist in
Butbut but they have done nothing about it.

(2) They uproot and burn several bundles and then claim they have destroyed
10 hectares.

(3) Nobody involved in the production and processing of marijuana has been
prosecuted since the industry started in the 1980s.

It is public knowledge that the planting and processing of marijuana in
Butbut is open. As open as the rice production in Tabuk or the flesh trade
in Olongapo and Angeles City before the closure of the US military bases.
One person we know swears that during a visit to Butbut sometime in the
early 1990s, nobody prevented him from taking photos of maturing marijuana
planted in a patch right in the center of the town. While leaving the
village, he saw women climbing a hill with loaded sacks on their heads.
Their guide said they were bringing marijuana to the processing center on
top of the hill.

At Buscalan, another Butbut village, the group chanced upon men working on
marijuana harvest in the various stages of its preparation for the market. A
member of the group took a photo of a man winnowing what looked like
pounded, dried marijuana leaves. Why the authorities consider uprooting
marijuana on Mount Chumanchil an accomplishment is a puzzle. The marijuana
plants do not run or hide.

The real challenge is to put in jail the people behind the marijuana
industry in Butbut. Only then will they be able to realize the difference
between producing marijuana from producing rice or beans.

Philippine National Police (PNP) regional director Chief Superintendent
George Alino admits that more than 70 percent of the country's marijuana
supply comes from the Cordillera. He has been telling the media how he plans
to reduce the marijuana production to a trickle. But if he cannot do it, he
might as well discuss with the Department of Tourism the possibility of
turning Mount Chumanchil into a tourist attraction so that our people who
have not seen marijuana will have the chance to see and even handle the
plant.

Rev. Luis Aoas, Estanislao Albano Jr., Tabuk, Kalinga