Cebu City cops on the hunt for cultivator of marijuana plants in Barangay Tagba-o

Police uproot marijuana stalks in Sitio Manggabon, Barangay Tagba-o, Cebu City on Tuesday, February 26, 2020. | contributed photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines—The City Mobile Force Company (CMFC) of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) is now going after the  cultivator of the marijuana plantation found in Sitio Manggabon, Barangay Tagba-o here.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Randy Korret, chief of the CMFC, said they will be filing a case of violation of Section 16 (Cultivation or Culture of Plants Classified as Dangerous Drugs) of the Dangerous Drugs Act against Robert Alacantara, an area resident, after they verified that he was indeed the cultivator of the 15,000 stalks of fully grown marijuana plants uprooted and burned on Tuesday afternoon, February 25, 2020.

Alcantara is currently at large as he wasn’t at the site during the time of operation that was done in coordination with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Central Visayas (PDEA-7).

Police said the uprooted marijuana plants were worth at least P6 million.

Korret said they are working to determine if Alcantara had other cohorts who helped him grow the illegal plant in the area.

According to the police, they found out about the plantation after getting tips from residents while they were patrolling the area.

Meanwhile, Korret said they will be planting bamboos on the site where they uprooted the marijuana so this could help locals in the future.

“Local bamboos will be planted on the site so that marijuana planters will not use it for planting illegal drugs in the future and it will also [become] their livelihood by selling bamboos for furniture four years after planting,” said Korret.