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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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Philippines: PNP Destroy P94M Worth Of Marijuana In 2 Weeks
Sun.Star Baguio (Philippines)
Tuesday 11 Jun 2002 ABOUT P94 million worth of marijuana in the region were destroyed by local police in less than two weeks confirming earlier reports that almost 70 percent of this prohibited plant came from the Cordillera, notably the province of Ifugao. This developed after a P40 million worth of marijuana were destroyed jointly by elements of the Ifugao Provincial Police Office Intelligence and Investigation Section, the Regional Anti-Narcotics Office 14, the Lagawe, Lamut and Kiangan Municipal Police Stations and the Ifugao Provincial Mobile Group in an eradication operation on June 6. Late last month, trainees of the PRO-CAR Special Counter-Insurgency Operation Unit Training (SCOUT) also discovered several patches of marijuana plantations during their test mission in Tinoc, Ifugao worth P54.72 million in the illegal market. The latest marijuana eradication operation was conducted at sitio Ihogwas, Barangay North Cababuyan in the town of Hingyon, Ifugao. The operation was led by Chief Inspector Mario Buyuccan, chief of the Intelligence and Investigation section of the Ifugao Provincial Police Office. The operation was conducted in a two-hectare plantation which was thickly planted with marijuana. The operatives uprooted about 18,000 fully grown marijuana plants, 8,000 marijuana seedlings and about 20,000 newly sprouted marijuana plants in several seedbeds in the area, according to the report from the office of PRO-CAR regional director Chief Supt. George Alino. Most of the plants were burned on site, while samples were brought to the Ifugao PPO headquarters, where a ceremonial burning was also done in the presence of National Police Commission regional director Edmundo Fernandez and some of his personnel who were then conducting an inspection of Ifugao police facilities and programs and projects. Local officials were also present during the ceremonial burning. The report said there were no arrests made at the plantation as no suspected cultivator was found in the area during the raid. Earlier, PRO-CAR Tactical Operation Center said SCOUT trainees led by elements of the Regional Mobile Group headed by Supt. Donato Bacquian chanced upon the clandestine plantations in sitios Guinsadan, Tuplac and Panoliban in Barangay Ahin and sitios Telep and Ambulaga in barangay Tulludan, all in the remote municipality of Tinoc. A total of 273,720 fully grown marijuana plants were uprooted and burned on site, the report said, adding that the burning of the marijuana plants were witnessed by barangay officials and residents. The report also said that the illicit plants were grown in about 2.286 hectares of land. The operatives also recovered two caliber .38 revolvers with live ammunitions from a hut within the plantation discovered in sitio Guinsadan. No suspected cultivators were arrested as no one was found in the plantations at the time of their discovery. The Narcotics group had reported that about 70 percent of the total marijuana supply in the Philippines are produced and clandestinely shipped from the region, particularly from Mountain Province, Ifugao, Kalinga and Benguet. The bulk of marijuana produce in the region is then being supplied to the international market by a still unidentified Chinese syndicate believed to have links with the notorious international drug triads. "The marijuana issue in the Cordillera region is not a local or a national problem. It is an international problem, which needs an international response," Nargroup said. Alino, on the other hand, has vowed to make the Cordillera region a marijuana-free zone. " I know this sounds impossible but I am confident that this can be realized with the strong support of other agencies."
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