PDEA 9 seizes P9.8-M worth of marijuana plants in Sulu

COTABATO CITY— Anti-narcotics agents uprooted 11,516 marijuana shrubs, worth P9.8 million, in an operation in Barangay Masjid Punjungan, Kalingalan Caluang, Sulu, on Tuesday, March 3.

Bryan Babang, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency 9, told reporters on Wednesday that the marijuana uprooting operation, conducted with the help of local executives, the Sulu Provincial Police Office, and the Army’s 21st Infantry Battalion, was based on reports from villagers about a marijuana farm in an upland area of Barangay Masjid Punjungan.

Babang added that the operation, which led to the uprooting and subsequent burning of the 11,516 marijuana plants in the presence of local executives, was supported by Lt. Gen. Donald Gumiran, commander of the military’s Western Mindanao Command, and Brig. Gen. Edwin Quilates, director of Police Regional Office 9.

Babang said the gunmen guarding the marijuana farm fled when they saw PDEA 9 agents, police, and soldiers approaching, guided by local officials and Muslim religious leaders who actively support the government’s anti-narcotics efforts in Sulu.

Local executives, along with officials from units of the Western Mindanao Command and Police Regional Office 9 in Sulu, have pledged to help identify the cultivators of the marijuana plants uprooted in Barangay Masjid Punjungan, so they can be prosecuted in absentia for violations of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.