[420 Girl]

Philippines - Authorities placed at P1 billion the estimated amount of “fully-grown” marijuana plants that have been uprooted from several hinterland areas located at the tri-boundaries of Ilocos Sur, La Union, and Benguet.

Region 1 office of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA 1) Director Roberto Opeña confirmed Sunday that this is the latest update on the on-going marijuana uprooting operations in the mountainous areas at the tri-boundaries of the said provinces that started last Wednesday, January 20.

He said the estimated total of the uprooted and destroyed marijuana plants on the said areas had now reached into at least three million plants aside from the thousands seedlings from at least 14 hectares of marijuana plantations.

The computation of the estimated worth of uprooted and destroyed marijuana plants was based on the guidelines set by the Dangerous Drug Board (DDB) that a kilo of fully-grown marijuana plants is worth P300.

“So far, this is considered as the biggest haul of destroyed marijuana plants in a single operation in the entire country,” Opeña said.

According to Opeña, the estimated worth of destroyed fully-grown marijuana plants is only a partial report as the uprooting operations in the Ilocos tri-boundaries being conducted by joint forces of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Philippine National Police (PNP), PDEA, and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), are still going on.

“We are expecting additions into our initial reports Monday while waiting for the arrival of the remaining teams from the plantation sites,” he said.

“Before our massive marijuana eradication operations started last Wednesday, we received reports from our assets about the presence of bulk of hectares of fully-grown marijuana plants in said place,” he added.

Opeña disclosed that the massive marijuana eradication campaign is part of their “OPLAN: Farmville.”

Meanwhile, authorities are now conducting a manhunt operation on the suspected cultivator who managed to escape after his arrest.

The alleged cultivator was identified as a certain Juliano Tapaya, a resident of Barangay Sapdaan, Santol, La Union.

Earlier, PDEA agent Juvenal Azurin, who is the PDEA 1 deputy director, said majority of the uprooted marijuana plants were destroyed at the plantation sites while the rest were brought into their office for proper disposition and documentation.

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