AUTHORITIES uprooted and burned some 310,00 fully-grown marijuana plants during a raid of three marijuana plantations in Kalinga, the PNP reported yesterday.
Brig. Gen. Roderick Alba, chief of the PNP public information office, said the raids were conducted from Friday to Sunday in Barangays Buscalan, Butbut Proper and Loccong, all in Tinglayan town.
Alba said the raids were conducted by personnel from the Kalinga PNP, PNP Special Action Force and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.
Alba said no cultivator was arrested but the operatives uprooted and burned 310,000 marijuana plants worth P62 million.
PNP officer-in-charge Lt. Gen. Vicente Danao Jr commended the personnel involved in the operations, saying: “Let me again commend our PNP and PDEA operatives for their unwavering efforts in the massive eradication of cannabis plantations in the mountainous areas of Kalinga.
“Let us further intensify all efforts to hunt down all those responsible behind the planting and cultivation of these prohibited plants,” added Danao.
PNP spokesperson Col. Jean Fajardo said the campaign against illegal drugs during the six-year Duterte administration had been a success. President Duterte is set to relinquish power to President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Thursday.
“On the part of the PNP, we could say that the campaign against illegal drugs was successful. We have arrested many (suspects),” said Fajardo.
“I think the numbers will not lie. If we are going to look at the real numbers in terms of volume and amounts of illegal drugs that were confiscated in more than five years, close to six years, it’s worth P89 billion,” said Fajardo.
PDEA data released last week showed 11,911.44 kilos of shabu, 163,549 pieces of ecstasy, 530.24 kilos of cocaine, and 10,523.07 kilos of marijuana leaves, worth P89.79 billion, were seized from July 1, 2016 to May 31 this year.
PDEA also said 6,252 suspects died and 345,216 others were arrested during 239,218 operations that were launched during the same period.
“Imagine if this volume of illegal drugs reached the community, how many will be affected?
Let us see this (figures) in measuring the success of the anti-illegal drug war of the Duterte administration,” said Fajardo.
