P28M worth of marijuana plants uprooted in Balamban

PDEA operatives uproot fully grown marijuana stalks in Barangay Gaas in Balamban town, Cebu. | photo from PDEA RO-7 Facebook page

CEBU CITY, Philippines— Police had their biggest operation against marijuana plants on Tuesday, February 4, 2020 when they uprooted around 70,000 stalks of these fully grown plants in Barangay Gaas, Balamban, Cebu.

A joint operation by the Cebu City Police Office, Cebu Province Police Office-Provincial Intelligence Board, Naval Forces Central, and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Region- 7 led to the uprooting of these plants in a plantation that was divided into three sites in this mountain barangay which is around 32 kilometers from Cebu City.

“Labing dako gyud ni siya nga operation namo sa karon nga tuig, kay dako-dako gyud ni ilang area,” said Police Major Christian Torres of Balamban Police. 

(This is the biggest operation for us this year because the area is really huge.)

Police said the value of the uprooted marijuana stalks is estimated to be at P28 million. 

According to Torres, it was difficult to find the plantations because it was well hidden. In first site, authorities were able to uproot more or less 45,000 stalks of fully grown marijuana plants. In the second site, there were around 10,000 fully grown marijuana plants while 15,000 stalks were taken from a third site.

Unfortunately, though, police weren’t able to catch the farmers of the plantation as they managed to escape the area during the operations.

Read: P36 million worth of marijuana uprooted in Toledo City

“Sayo kaayo mi nag deploy didto, as early as 2 a.m. naa na mi taw didto. Pero naka bantay gyud ning mga planters og naka dagan gyud,” said Torres. 

(We were deployed very early there, as early as 2 a.m. we had operatives there. But the planters were still able to find out and managed to escape.)  

According to Torres, there was an encounter between his men and the farmers who quickly escaped the area. 

The suspects who are now at large are Rodrigo Cabalis, alias, “Drigo,” Lordi Progosa, and Tisip Palando.

Aside from Barangay Gaas, Torres also said they are closely monitoring other villages in Balamban for marijuana plantation. 

“Kining mga areas nga duol og water source or kining tubod ang mga areas nga posibleng diha sila mananum, mao na among gina tanaw,” he added. 

(These areas that are near water sources, these are where they are likely to plant marijuana. These are what we are monitoring.)

Torres said they were able to locate the area of their operations yesterday through close monitoring with the use of their drone. /bmjo