NARGROUP SCORES IN BIGGEST DOPE PURGE IN BENGUET

COMBINED elements of the 14th Regional Narcotics Group and other
regional law enforcement agencies last week dealt a blow on illegal
drugs during a 4-day operation conducted on a seven-hectare marijuana
plantation in the mountainous boundary of Bakun and Kibungan towns of
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 MJ haul in the last three years,
according to Nargroup regional chief, Sr. Insp. Marcos Ebhalan Jr.

This developed even as Ebhalan reported that President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo will travel to Kalinga next week to lead the
marijuana eradication in the province, which the President actually
did in Ifugao late last year.

"We expect, the marijuana eradication operations there to be as big as
in Kibungan and Bakun," Ebhalan said.

The Nargroup regional chief narrated to reporters that the latest MJ
eradication was a result of a four-day operation of the troops
including two members of the local media from March 5 to 8.

Destroyed from the five sites in sitio Pengsa, barangay Dalipey,
Kibungan, were 400,000 fully-grown marijuana plants.

Some 300,000 fully-grown marijuana were uprooted in a 1.5 hectare
plantation in sitio Lanipew and another 300,000 in sitio Sacubo, both
in barangay Tacadang, Kibungan.

Ebhalan added that they also destroyed another 20,000 fully-grown MJ
in a two-hectare plantation located in sitio Kimmayad, barangay
Kapayapa, Bakun.

Most of the destroyed plants were already about ten feet tall, Ebhalan
said.

He also revealed that the plants were well tended with the application
of fertilizers and pesticides.

He concluded from this that the clandestine plantations may have been
maintained by big-time cultivators.

"It took us eight hours of continued hiking from where we left our
vehicles to reach the sites. But with the determination of our men, we
were able to reach the target areas and perform our duty with zest,"
Ebhalan said.

Ebhalan vowed that there will be more MJ eradication operations within
their jurisdiction.

He said they will continue to scour the mountains of the region no
matter how difficult the terrain may be.

Earlier, the Nargroup-CAR and the Ifugao Provincial Police Office
uprooted and burned more than P30-million worth of marijuana in
Nompolia, Hungduan and Balawis, Banaue, both in Ifugao.

Ebhalan said that the discovery of the marijuana plantation, which was
spread over approximately two hectares of land in the two areas, was a
result of several months of sustained surveillance in the area and
their effective interaction with the local population who served as
informants.

Ebhalan added that the uprooted marijuana plants were burned on the
site, while samples were brought to the Ifugao PPO for evidentiary
purposes.

However, no person was arrested during the anti-marijuana
campaign.

The latest marijuana eradication in Bakun and Kibungan was also
participated in by personnel of the Anti-Processing and Production
Division of the National Narcotics Group and International
Coordinating Advisory Group.