CORDI 'GRASS' FLOODING WORLD MARKET: NARGROUP

ABOUT 70 percent of the total marijuana supply worldwide are produced and
clandestinely shipped from the Cordillera, particularly in the Mountain
Province, Ifugao, Kalinga, and Benguet provinces.

This was the startling revelation of a National Anti-Narcotics Group official.

Chief Supt. Efren Fernandez, director of the PNP Nargroup central office,
revealed too that a Chinese syndicate believed to have links with notorious
international drug triads is supplying marijuana to the international market.

Fernandez claimed that the Chinese drug syndicate supplying marijuana to
the region has links with the Yakuza of Japan, Columbia Cali of Columbia,
the biggest cocaine producer worldwide, and the 14-K of Hong Kong.

"The marijuana issue in the Cordillera region is not a local or a national
problem. It is an international problem, which needs an international
response," said Fernandez, who was the special guest at the one-day North
Luzon anti-drug workshop held in Camp Bado Dangwa, La Trinidad, Benguet.

The anti-drug workshop sought to enhance the training of personnel to
combat the proliferation of illegal drugs in the country.

In his opening remarks during the anti-drug summit, Fernandez told drug law
enforcement personnel of the police and the military that "perpetual
vigilance" is the name of the game in the war against marijuana production
in the region.

"We need to be vigilant and continuously exert more efforts to combat the
proliferation of illegal drugs here in the region and in the entire
country," Fernandez said, as he conceded that the drug problem is one of
the hardest to solve.

"Hanggang sa pagtanda natin, nandyan pa rin ang problema sa drugs, so we
need to have a wholistic approach in fighting the drug problem," he added.

Just recently, the 14th Nargroup-CAR dealt a telling blow on illegal drugs
during a four-day operation conducted on a seven-hectare marijuana
plantation deep in the mountains at the boundary of the towns of Bakun and
Kibungan, Benguet.

The drug enforcers uprooted and burned more than 1.2 million fully-grown
and flowering marijuana plants estimated to cost P156-million in the
illicit market. This is considered as the biggest haul in the last three
years, according to Nargroup regional chief, Sr. Insp. Marcos Ebhalan Jr.

Sometime in 1990, the United States Anti-Drug Enforcement Agency joined the
military in the Cordillera-wide marijuana eradication in view of reports
that bulk of produce in the region was being supplied to the US market.

Meanwhile, Senior Supt. Jacinto Dino, Nargroup operations chief, informed
participants of the workshop that 1.8 million of the 75 million Philippine
population are regular drug users. He said 43 percent of the users are
government employees.

"The regular drug users can be found in the slums of Tondo to the towers in
Makati," Dino stressed.

Dino added that such figure is expected to increase in the coming years
even as President Arroyo declared last year that the government is aiming
for a drug-free Philippines in year 2010.

This developed also even as anti-drug law enforcement agencies in the
country have uncovered and eventually destroyed seven clandestine
laboratories (shabu manufacturing machines) in Angeles City, Cagayan,
Quezon City, Pasig City, Lipa City, and in San Juan, Metro Manila.

Since 1990 to 2000, the Nargroup has confiscated tons of illegal drugs with
a market value of more than P21 billion compared to the P80 million worth
of drug seized when the government started to declare an all-out war
against illegal drugs in 1972.