TINGLAYAN, Kalinga – Anti-narcotics agents from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Cordillera (PDEA-CAR) together with PDEA Region 1 and the Philippine Army conducted a marijuana eradication operation at Sitios Talin and Pugo, Tulgao West, here, recently.
The government’s anti-drug campaign resulted to the destruction of 74,452 pieces of fully-grown marijuana plants cultivated from 13,057 square meters of land in the said remote areas of the province.
The prohibited hemp worth P 15,310,000 were burned on site by the operating government forces while no cultivator was arrested, considering they were allegedly able to predict the arrival of the operating troops and scamper to safety before their arrival at the plantation sites.
The operation dubbed “Oplan Chill” was enforced a few weeks after the House Committee on Health endorsed House Bill Number 180, or the proposed Philippine Compassionate Medical Cannabis Act. The said bill proposed the legalization and regulation of the medical use of marijuana.
The government’s anti-drug campaign was brought back to the PDEA from the Philippine National Police (PNP) after the unending issues on the alleged proliferation of alleged extra-judicial killings when the PNP was at the helm of the anti-drug operation.
Tinglayan has been one of the identified marijuana-producing areas in the Cordillera aside from the tri-boundaries of Benguet, La Union and Ilocos Sur which had been producing illegal hemp for decades now.
Earlier, the PDEA tagged the Cordillera as a major producer of the marijuana being circulated in the different parts of the country considering that marijuana thrives best in the mountains of the region.
By HENT