P11.8-M ‘pot’ seized

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet — Anti-narcotics agents and police seized P11.8 million worth of marijuana bricks at a checkpoint in Bontoc, Mt. Province Monday afternoon.

The haul — a total of 472 kilos — was the biggest in the Cordilleras to date in terms of "processed marijuana" possibly bound for Baguio City and Metro Manila, said Chief Superintendent Raul Gonzales, Cordillera police director.

Police held Romeo Agoho Viduya, 27, who was en route from Kalinga to Bontoc, the capital town of Mt. Province, when his jeepney carrying the marijuana bricks was stopped at a checkpoint in Barangay Lagkangeo.

The dried marijuana leaves pounded into bricks came from marijuana plantations in Kalinga, particularly Tinglayan town, said Superintendent Bernardo Borrinaga, Cordillera chief of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.

Gonzales said farmers in remote mountain villages cultivate marijuana for livelihood, prompting authorities to introduce alternative crops such as cutflowers and yakon, a Japanese rootcrop.

Senior Superintendent Rodrigo Licudine, chief of the region’s anti-illegal drugs task force, said marijuana harvests peak during summer.

Police said Viduya, who had escaped twice from prison, also has a pending case of frustrated rape.

Last Monday, authorities found a carton containing 20 kilos of dried marijuana leaves along the national road in Barangay Bulanao in Tabuk, Kalinga.

A villager had tipped off police that a truck carrying the contraband would pass by the area.

Sensing the presence of policemen, the truck driver jumped off and escaped, leaving behind the truck and its illegal cargo.