GENERAL SANTOS CITY – Joint operatives uprooted and destroyed on Thursday around PHP2.6 million worth of marijuana plants in another upland plantation in Tampakan town, South Cotabato province.
Naravy Duquiatan, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA)-Region 12, said the marijuana plantation was discovered amid a corn farm in Sitio Bong Sbang, Barangay Danlag, Tampakan.
She said they launched the operation based on reports from concerned residents regarding the cultivation of marijuana in the area by a local farmer.
Elements from the PDEA-South Cotabato provincial office, South Cotabato Police Provincial Office and the Police Regional Office-12 proceeded to the area early Thursday and found the plantation around 6:30 a.m., she said.
“They uprooted around 13,000 fully grown marijuana plants that were cultivated along with corn crops,” she said in a report released Thursday night.
Duquiatan said the operatives burned most of the uprooted marijuana, which has a market value of PHP200 each, at the site but brought down some of them as evidence.
Based on the initial investigation, she said the marijuana was cultivated by a certain Jimben Sinaya, who escaped during the operation.
Col. Jemuel Siason, South Cotabato police director, said the operation was part of their continuing campaign to eradicate marijuana plantations in the hinterlands of Tampakan and the neighboring areas.
He said the campaign has so far resulted in the scarcity of marijuana supply in the province and other localities.
“This campaign will continue throughout the year and even to farthest clandestine marijuana farms, we are well determined to pursue (this),” he said in a statement.
In September last year, authorities discovered a marijuana plantation in Sitio Alyong, Barangay Danlag and uprooted around 10,000 hills of marijuana.
Two months later, police operatives also uprooted and destroyed around 2,500 fully grown marijuana in a plantation at the border of Sitio Alyong, Barangay Danlag in Tampakan, and Sitio Atbol, Barangay Kimlawis in Kiblawan town, Davao del Sur that was reportedly protected by New People’s Army (NPA) rebels.
In October 2019, joint operatives recovered around PHP7.7 million worth of marijuana plants in separate plantations backed by the NPA at the borders of Tampakan with Columbio, Sultan Kudarat and Kiblawan, Davao del Sur. (PNA)
