BURN. Law enforcers destroy marijuana plants with an estimated value of PHP5.3 million in Ilocos Sur province on Friday (April 12, 2024). No cultivators were apprehended. (Photo courtesy of PDEA-Ilocos Region)
LAOAG CITY – Fully grown marijuana plants with a total estimated value of PHP7.5 million were destroyed in Sugpon, Ilocos Sur over the weekend.
Joel Plaza, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Region 1 (Ilocos) Director, said 37,700 marijuana plants were uprooted from seven plantation sites on Friday and Saturday.
The first five plantation sites, with a total land area of 4,200 square meters in Sitio Tangilig and worth about PHP5.3 million, were discovered on Friday.
Two more plantations were discovered on Saturday, valued at PHP2.2 million, Plaza said.
Officers of PDEA Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur, Regional Mobile Force Battalion and police stations in the towns of Sugpon, Cervantes, Suyo, Sigay, Lidlidda, Tagudin, San Emilio, Nagbukel, Galimuyod, Salcedo, and Gregorio del Pilar conducted the operations.
“Law enforcement agencies stand united, determined, and vigilant in safeguarding our communities against the menace of narcotics,” Brig. Gen. Lou F. Evangelista, chief of the police regional office, said. (PNA)
