CAMP MELCHOR DELA CRUZ, ISABELA – Government forces destroyed 15 marijuana plantations in a series of operations in Kalinga province over the weekend, the Army division based here reported on Monday.
Soldiers belonging to the Army’s 50th Infantry Battalion, the local police, and agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) uprooted marijuana plants estimated to be worth P17 million in the villages of Loccong and Buscalan in Tinglayan town.
No suspects, however, were apprehended or tagged in the operations.
Major Gen. Perfecto Rimando, commander of the Army’s 5th Infantry Division based here, said the discovery and subsequent destruction of the marijuana plantation was a breakthrough in the both the government’s anti-drug and anti-insurgency campaigns.
“The communist New People’s Army terrorists are known to maintain and sell marijuana as one of their sources of finances to make their group afloat. In the absence of big businesses and mining as sources of their support in the area, selling marijuana has been one of their businesses,” he said.
He cited the discovery by 54th Infantry Battalion troopers in July 2017 of several kilos of marijuana at an abandoned NPA camp in Dango village, Tinoc town in Ifugao. /kga