The Philippine National Police-Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PNP-PDEA) personnel destroyed some 106,140 fully grown marijuana plants during their three-day joint eradication operation in the mountain area of Benguet and Kalinga.
Brig. Gen. Mafelino Aspero Bazar, the regional director of the Police Regional Office for the Cordillera, reported to PNP commander Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr. at Camp Crame that on January 24 and 25, workers removed and destroyed 26,000 fully developed marijuana plants on 2,600 square meters of land in the Brgy. Kalinga, Loccong, and Tinglayan.
On January 26, authorities in the same town burnt over 65,000 fully grown marijuana plants with an estimated SDP of PHP14.8 million on a plot of land that was about 9,000 square meters.
Authorities carried up an operation on January 25 and 26 to destroy 10,000 fully grown marijuana plants with an estimated SDP of PHP2 million on 1,000 square meters of land in Chumanchil and Barangay Loccong in Tinglayan town.
In Sitio Bacbacan, Poblacion, Kibungan, Benguet, on January 26, personnel from the Kibungan Municipal Police Station, the Benguet Police Provincial Office, and PDEA-Cordillera destroyed 2,800 fully grown marijuana plants with an estimated SDP of PHP560,000 on two sites covering a land area of about 350 square meters.
On-site burning was placed with an additional three kilograms of dried marijuana stalks, believed to have an SDP of 360,000 PHP.
On the other hand, another operation was started on January 25. Two kilograms of dried marijuana stalks with an estimated SDP of PHP240,000 and a total of 2,340 fully grown marijuana plants with an estimated SDP of PHP468,000 were destroyed on four sites with a land area of around 330 square meters.
However, according to reports, no cultivators were detained as a result of the activities.
