P6.5-M marijuana destroyed in 2-day operation – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

By Liza Agoot

BAGUIO CITY – Government troops destroyed an estimated 32,585 fully grown marijuana plants worth PHP6.5 million in the provinces of Kalinga and Benguet, the Police Regional Office-Cordillera (PROCor) said on Thursday.

Col. Carolina Lacuata, Public Information Office chief of the PROCor, said the two days of simultaneous operations were conducted in Barangay Ngibat, Tinglayan, Kalinga; Bas-angan and Kayapa, Bakun; and Tacadang, Kibungan; all in Benguet province.

“This is part of the continuing activity of the law enforcers to rid the region of illegal drugs like marijuana. We have instructions not to relax in the anti-illegal drugs effort,” she said.

Lacuata said the operations were simultaneously held on Sept. 19 and 20 with operatives from the different units of the Philippine National Police and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in the Cordillera.

No cultivator was arrested in the operations.

“Our operatives walk several hours because cultivation is intentionally done in hard-to-reach areas of the mountains and cultivators are…