11,000 marijuana plants uprooted in upland Sultan Kudarat town
Breaking News • 16:30 PM Tue Nov 30, 2021
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By:
John M. Unson
The marijuana plants uprooted in a secluded barangay in Columbio, Sultan Kudarat. (PDEA-12)
COLUMBIO, Sultan Kudarat ---- Authorities uprooted and burned 11,000 marijuana plants in an operation Tuesday in Columbio, Sultan Kudarat.
Naravy Duquiatan, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-12, placed at P2.2 million their estimate of the marijuana plants reportedly propagated by a certain Vincent Estrada and an accomplice named Vergil.
The marijuana plants were neatly planted in rows in an upland area in Sitio Asmakul-Basag in Barangay Sinapulan, Columbio.
The operation that resulted in the confiscation of the 11,000 marijuana plants was launched after vigilant residents reported to the PDEA-12 and the local police its presence in Sitio Asmakul-Basag, a secluded area in Barangay Sinapulan.
Estrada and his cohort had escaped when they sensed that PDEA-12 agents and combined personnel of the Columbio municipal police and the Sultan Kudarat provincial police were approaching their farm from two directions, rifles aimed at their location.
Duquiatan said two the men shall be charged with violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, also known as the Republic Act 9165, using the marijuana samples collected from their farm as evidence.
Monday’s uprooting of 12,000 marijuana plants in Columbio was PDEA-12’s second in just two weeks.
Combined PDEA-12 agents and policemen uprooted the marijuana plants planted in between corn crops by a farmer named Jimben Sinaya in his farm in Sitio Tukaymal in Barangay Tablu in Tampakan, South Cotabato.
Sinaya had also fled before PDEA-12 agents and members of the Tampakan municipal police and the South Cotabato provincial police could surround his farm during a raid also premised on tips by residents of Tampakan privy to his ownership of a marijuana farm in Barangay Tablu.