P51.7 million marijuana destroyed in Kalinga, Benguet

MANILA, Philippines — Marijuana plants with an estimated value of P48 million were uprooted and destroyed in Tinglayan, Kalinga on Wednesday.

Anti-narcotics operatives raided a marijuana plantation on Mt. Chumanchil in Barangay Loccong, police Drug Enforcement Group director Brig. Gen. Dionisio Bartolome Jr. said.

In Benguet, Levis Panangen, 26, and Alvin Lid-ayan, 21, were arrested for alleged possession of marijuana leaves worth P3.7 million in a sting in the parking lot of a strawberry farm in Barangay Betag in La Trinidad yesterday.

Rosel Sarmiento, spokesman for the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in the Cordilleras, said boodle money, a cellular phone and a Tamaraw FX were also seized from the suspects.

Meanwhile, in Northern Mindanao, the regional oversight committee on barangay drug clearing said 19 barangays in three provinces are now cleared of illegal drugs.

Ninety-five other barangays in the region had earlier been declared as drug-cleared and four others as drug-free.- Gerry Lee Gorit