LA TRINIDAD, Philippines – At least 80 hectares of illicit marijuana plantations in remote Mt. Chumanchil in Barangay Loccong, Tinglayan town in Kalinga will be up in smoke when authorities are finished in their continuing eradication operations starting last week.
Eighteen plantation sites totaling to 16.2655 hectares yielded P2,249,145,000 worth of marijuana, the biggest haul so far in 2016 year in the highland region.
The four-day eradication campaign from August 5 to 8 has yielded 11,605,250 pieces of fully-grown marijuana, 220,000 grams of dried marijuana leaves and 45,000 grams of marijuana seedlings.
Juvenal Azurin, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA)-Cordillera said Mt. Chumanchil is full of illicit marijuana plantations that could reach up to 80 hectares.
Kalinga Gov. Jocel Baac confirmed the proliferation of illegal marijuana plantations in Loccong but cited socio-economic reasons behind the “illegal agriculture” among local villagers.
Baac said the illegal agricultural activity has long been there, since the time of President Fidel Ramos as chief of the Philippine Constabulary and police.
“Time pa (Ramos) sinusunog na yan,” he said. “The problem is everytime they burn or uproot, kumakalat naman ang buto. ‘Pag umulan, according to residents, tutubo ulit.”
The Kalinga governor said the government should instead provide good roads and irrigation systems in those villages so that many would shift into farming.
Baac however belied that all local villagers within the Mt. Chumanchil complex in Tinglayan are into marijuana plantations. “Basta na lang daw tumutubo,” he said.
Azurin said authorities found small makeshift huts in the plantations indicating there is apparently a conscious effort to tend these illicit marijuana farms.
Five years ago, the Cordillera police tagged Kalinga as the next huge hotspot of marijuana plantations in the Cordillera.
Benguet, particularly Kibungan, Bakun and its boundaries with La Union and Ilocos Sur have long been tagged as Northern Luzon’s “green gold” hotspot because of its high-quality marijuana produce at par with the Mexican hemp.
