Cebu City police eye planting bamboo on former marijuana plantation sites

The Cebu City Mobile Force Company (CMFC) uproot and burn down around 3,000 stalks of fully grown marijuana plants worth P1.2 million in Barangay Adlaon, Cebu City on Thursday afternoon, April 16, 2020. | Photos courtesy of CMFC

CEBU CITY, Philippines – The Cebu City police are now planning to plant bamboo on sites where marijuana plants were previously cultivated.

The Cebu City Mobile Force Company (CMFC), Cebu City Drug Enforcement Unit (DEU), and Regional Mobile Force Batallion in Central Visayas (RMFB – 7) uprooted and burned down on Thursday, April 16, 2020 around 3,000 fully-grown marijuana stalks found on a remote area in Sitio Bayabas, Barangay Adlaon, Cebu City.

In a statement sent to the media, Police Colonel Randy Korret, CMFC chief, said the confiscated and destroyed marijuana had a total value of P1.2 million.

Korret said they received an anonymous tip that marijuana plants were being grown on hilly terrain in Barangay Adlaon, one of the city’s hinterland villages.

Initial investigations showed that the prohibited plants were farmed on a timberland area.

No suspect was held in custody however, Korret said they are now tracing the identity of a certain “Makoy” believed to be the one responsible for cultivating marijuana in the area.

This is not the first time marijuana plantation sites were discovered in Sitio Bayabas in Barangay Adlaon, prompting police to plant these areas with bamboo.

“The plantation site will form part of our incoming programmed project for reforestation wherein local bamboos will be planted on the site so that marijuana planters will not use it for planting illegal drugs in the future but will form part of their livelihood by selling bamboos for furniture four years after planting,” Korret said.

It can be recalled that in February, police also discovered a marijuana plantation site in Sitio Bayabas, Barangay Adlaon. /rcg