Air Force joins marijuana eradication in Kalinga

TABUK CITY, Philippines â€“ Two Air Force helicopters joined police and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) operatives yesterday in the continuous dismantling of marijuana plantations in Tinglayan town in Kalinga.

Ronald Allan Ricardo, PDEA director for Cordillera region, said at least P156 million worth of marijuana plants were uprooted from more than five-hectare plantation sites in Mt. Bitulayungan.

Since Tuesday, the operatives have been scouring the hinterlands of the village where marijuana plantations were discovered during an aerial marijuana eradication survey.

The operations also cost the Philippine National Police one of its few active air assets, the Robinson R44 helicopter, which crashed into the mountain last Wednesday.

Superintendent Oliver Emmodias, chief of operations of the Cordillera police; Chief Inspector Dexter Vitug, pilot; and PO3 Jude Edwin Duque, co-pilot, were injured in the incident.

“If I have to make a conservative estimate, no less than 15 hectares of marijuana plantations are being maintained in the area,” Ricardo said.

Kalinga police director Senior Superintendent Froilan Perez said the mountain area  can be reached by foot for at least eight hours from the nearest access road.

“According to our chief of police in Tinglayan, seven days more would not be enough to rid the entire mountain of the illegal plants,” he said.