P40-M marijuana plants seized in Kalinga torched

BAGUIO CITY — Anti-narcotics agents and policemen torched marijuana plants worth about P40 million seized from two plantations in Tinglayan, Kalinga this week.

During a two-day eradication operation, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) agents and Kalinga policemen found a total of 7.4 hectares of marijuana plantations in Sitio Kasablutan, Barangay Loccong and Sitio Kaum-uma, Barangay Tulgao West, both in Tinglayan town.

Superintendent Danilo Flordeliza, PDEA regional director, said the haul reached a total of 200,000 fully grown marijuana plants.

Flordeliza said the members of the raiding team, tipped off by villagers, had to walk for four hours from the Tinglayan town proper to the hinterland villages where the marijuana plantations were situated.

Part of the marijuana plants were brought to Tabuk, Kalinga’s capital town, for the ceremonial burning by Gov. Dominador Belac and provincial prosecutor Arsenio Ande in the presence of local officials, journalists and civil society groups last Aug. 17. — Artemio Dumlao