PDEA agents burn P1.5-M marijuana in Benguet

LA TRINIDAD — Local drug enforcement agents uprooted and destroyed about P1.5 million worth of marijuana plants in Kapangan, Benguet, which is found 35 kilometers from Baguio City, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency – Cordillera Administrative Region said Saturday. The anti-narcotics operatives, who dubbed their operation Oplan Pingew, said that they burned the uprooted 6,400 full-grown marijuana plants and 4,200 marijuana seedlings on site in barangay Sagubo, Kapangan town. The plants and seedlings were found in eight different cultivation sites with a total area of 1,400 square meters. During the three-day operation, the PDEA agents also held a town-hall talk on the ill-effects of marijuana use, the legal implications of planting and trading marijuana, and the ways by which the community could help enforce drug laws. They also spoke with Kapangan Mayor Robert Canuto. For the past 30 years, anti-narcotics agents have been conducting uprooting and burning operations in the remote mountain towns of Benguet and bordering provinces, but have observed that local communities continue to host marijuana plantations. Local residents say they plant marijuana because it is not only easier to grow on rocky upland soil, but provides earnings that could not be rivaled by vegetables and other conventional crops.—DM, GMANews.TV