P100-M MARIJUANA PLANTS DESTROYED AT BENGUET SITIO

Plantation Believed Owned By NPA Rebels

Elements of the Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force
(AIDSOTF) uprooted some 500,000 marijuana plants valued at some R100
million in a plantation in Benguet believed to be owned by New
People's Army (NPA) rebels.

Director Marcelo Ele Jr., AID-SOTF director, stated in his report that
his men discovered the marijuana plantation at a far-flung area some
7,120 feet above sea level at the tri-boundaries of Benguet, Mt.
Province, and Ifugao.

Ele said that AID-SOTF, supported by the Philippine Drug Enforcement
Agency (PDEA), raided the marijuana plantation located at Sitio
Soukan, Barangay Lamayan, Buguias, Benguet.

Of the estimated 500,000 marijuana plants uprooted, Ele said, 300,000
were fully grown with fruiting tops, 150,000 half-grown, and 50,000
marijuana seedlings on plots.

"(The) said plantation was reported to be maintained and cultivated by
local CTs (communist terrorists) as their source of funds," the
AID-SOTF report stated.

The raiding teams also found at the plantation a manual on insect
sprayers and insecticides.

No one was arrested in the operation, the report also
stated.

Because the police authorities had no capability to airlift the huge
volume of the uprooted marijuana plants to Camp Crame in Quezon City,
Ele said, they burned the prohibited plants in Barangay Lam-ayan.

Only four sacks of marijuana plants were presented by Interior and
Local Government Secretary Angelo Reyes and PNP chief Director-General
Arturo Lomibao during a press conference at Camp Crame.

"This shows the momentum that we started will keep on going and we
will even accelerate (the anti-illegal drugs campaign)," Reyes said as
he congratulated the policemen who participated in the operation.

A few months ago, police operatives likewise raided a big marijuana
plantation at the tri-boundary of Benguet, La Union and Ilocos Sur.
Marijuana plants valued at several millions of pesos were uprooted and
destroyed.

The plantation was also suspected to be owned by NPA rebels.