CEBU CITY, Philippines – Law enforcers in Balamban, a first-class municipality located in western Cebu, will be intensifying their hunt for marijuana farms.
This developed after operatives from Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Central Visayas (PDEA – 7), the Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO), and the 302nd Infantry Brigade of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) arrested two suspected marijuana farmers.
They also uprooted 11,500 stalks of fully grown marijuana plants worth P4.6-million in a remote area in Sitio Agop Daku, Barangay Gaas in Balamban town past 1 p.m. on Friday, March 1.
Officials from the PDEA – 7 and CPPO burn P4.6-million worth of fully grown marijuana stalks found in Barangay Gaas, Balamban town on March 1. / Photo courtesy of 302nd Infantry Brigade
The marijuana plants were transported to Regional Training Center in Central Visayas – Balamban Headquarters where they were burned down.
Police Major Christian Torres, chief of Balamban Police Station, said the suspects were identified as Amado Cañonera, and Bernabe Pardillo who were in their 40s.
Torres said three more suspected marijuana cultivators remain at large when they escaped the area during the raid.
“We believe they (Cañonera and Pardillo) are the ones who planted these marijuana stalks. But a cellphone left by one of the suspects who escaped showed messages that maybe somebody is financing them to plant marijuana,” said Torres in Cebuano.
“The cellphone was sent to PDEA – 7 to trace the identity of the financier,” he added.
Intensified Operations
Friday’s uprooting of marijuana plants happened a week after drug enforcement authorities also found a marijuana farm in the same village of Gaas in Balamban town.
READ MORE: P8M marijuana plants uncovered in a mountain village in Balamban, Cebu
Torres said the police in Balamban would be conducting raids, at least twice a week, in the town’s mountainous areas where they believed marijuana plants were being cultivated.
He added that they had been receiving information from barangay officials in Gaas of marijuana being planted in remote areas of the village, especially on mountain slopes wherein terrain is difficult for walking.
“We will be meeting with drug enforcement agents from PDEA to help us on our intensified operations against marijuana cultivators. We will be regularly conducting raids on these marijuana farms,” Torres said.
Torres said most of the people they caught cultivating marijuana told them that insufficient income from farming ordinary crops such as cassava, camote (sweet potato), and other vegetables prompted them to plant cannabis instead.
“And the price of marijuana right now is higher compared in the previous years. So, they choose to plant marijuana to earn more,” he added./dbs