Cordillera police burn P1.6M in marijuana in series of plantation raids

LA TRINIDAD, Philippines — Two marijuana plantations were burned in Atok, Benguet on Thursday in a week that was the large-scale destruction of marijuana plants in the Cordillera region.

Atok town policemen, Benguet anti-drug police unit operatives, intelligence operatives and police from the Benguet police provincial headquarters and personnel from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Cordillera swooped down on a 100-square-meter marijuana plantation in Caliking, Atok and razed some 500 fully-grown marijuana plants valued to reach P100,000.

Police Brig. Gen. RWin Pagkalinawan, Cordillera police director, said no cultivator was arrested.

Less than an hour later, another 100-square-meter plantation was discovered in the same village. Another 500 plants were burned, with an estimated value of another P100,000.

Police did not arrest any cultivator from that plantation.

Only last Tuesday morning, some 820 fully-grown marijuana plants went up in smoke in communal lands Barangay Patay in Sagada, Mountain Province.

Valued at P164,000, the two plantations were discovered by police and PDEA personnel after Sagada town policemen were tipped off by informants.

On Monday, two illicit marijuana plantations in Tabuk City, Kalinga were also torched after policem who were on combat patrol operations accidentally discovered the plantation in a 700-square-meter plot of land at Sitio Catao in Barangay Lacnog.

The 3,500 fully-grown marijuana plants were estimated to be worth P700,000. The plants were uprooted and set ablaze.

Two marijuana plantations were also discovered in Tabuk City over the weekend and two more in remote Tacadang in Kibungan, Benguet. Around P500,000 in marijuana was burned in those plantations.

Also on Sunday afternoon, policemen and PDEA agents who were validating tips of marijuana plantations in Sitio Asoan in Tacadang village in Kibungan, Benguet found a 50-square-meter lot planted with 200 marijuana plants valued at P40,000.

Policemen also uncovered another 70-square-meter marijuana plantation at the same sitio with 350 fully-grown marijuana worth P70,000.