KORONADAL CITY, South Cotabato – Police authorities raided on Thursday, January 14, a vast plantation planted to about P2.6 million of marijuana trees in a remote village in Tampakan town.
South Cotabato Police Director Col. Jemuel Siason said police operatives uprooted some 13,00 of fully-grown marijuana trees worth P2-6 million in Sitio Bong Sbang, Barangay Danlag, Tampakan.
However, suspected cultivator Jimben Sinaya was able to elude arrest before the raiding team arrived.
Siason said the bulk of the marijuana plants were burned in the area, while the remaining plants were turned over to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) for proper disposition to support the filing of charges against Sinaya.
“The seizure of the clandestine marijuana plantation was a result of the cooperation of the local community in the government’s campaign against illegal drug,” Siason said.
He said police authorities intensified the monitoring on marijuana plantations located in remote villages of Tampakan following the seizure of some 10,000 marijuana plants in the same area last September.