2,000 marijuana stalks uprooted in Balamban
CEBU, Philippines - Police uprooted P500,000 worth of fully grown marijuana plants in an operation against illegal drugs in the sitios of Pangi and Cansi in the mountain barangay of Magsaysay, Balamban last Tuesday.
About 2,000 fully grown marijuana plants were successfully eradicated by the police in a 12-hour operation which started at 3:30 in the morning and ended about 3:00 in the afternoon.
Police, however, failed to arrest the cultivators although they were already identified.
Evidence was submitted for chemical analysis at the Philippine National Police Crime Laboratory-7 in Camp Sotero Cabahug, Cebu City.
Police also recovered a tarpaulin made as an improvised rain collection system that cultivators used in watering the marijuana plants.
Chief Insp. Richard Oliver, Balamban police chief, said that operation was conducted based on an information given by the barangay officials of the said barangay.
Oliver said that the marijuana plantation was located in a secluded and grassy area.
“Ang hirap du’n ang delikado ng trail ng daan kailangan ko’ng nakatungkod paakyat tapos maulan man,†Oliver said in a phone interview. (It’s located after a very difficult and dangerous trail, and it was raining.)
Police are now monitoring other areas believed to have marijuana plantations.
A few months back, Balamban police also uprooted P600,000 worth of marijuana plants in the same town which was considered as the biggest haul last year.
About 3,000 fully grown marijuana plants were uprooted by the Provincial Public Safety Company in a 16-hour operation.
The plants were in an elevated area and concealed by trees.
Last August, suspended Governor Gwendolyn Garcia and Cebu Provincial Police Office director Patrocinio Comendador burned P1-million worth of marijuana plants at the CPPO grounds. Last September, the Regional Public Safety Battalion (RPSB)-7 burned some P2.7-million worth of marijuana stalks uprooted from a mountain barangay in the town of Badian. — (FREEMAN)
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