GENERAL SANTOS CITY–Policemen on Monday uprooted at least 1,500 fully grown marijuana plants worth about PHP300,000 in a remote village in Tampakan town in South Cotabato province.
Chief of the Tampakan municipal police, Senior Insp. Rafael Banggay, said Tuesday they discovered the marijuana in an upland plantation in Sitio Bongsbang in Barangay Danlag.
Banggay said two teams from their station staged the raid early Monday following a tip from Blaan tribal leaders in neighboring Sitio Datal Biao, also in Danlag.
He said that upon reaching the area after a two-hour hike, the police officers immediately uprooted the marijuana plants, took some samples, and burned the rest of the haul before hastily leaving the area.
“We decided to immediately leave the site for security reasons due to previous sightings of (New People’s Army) rebels,” he said.
Banggay said they failed to make any arrest as the plantation was already abandoned when they arrived.
He said they are verifying the identity of the owner of the land where the marijuana plantation was situated, as the owner could also be its cultivator.
However, he said they have received information that the alleged landowner, which he did not identify pending the ongoing investigation, had died in a previous ambush in Kiblawan town, Davao del Sur.
Banggay said they are currently monitoring possible marijuana plantations in other remote villages in the area.
Authorities discovered and destroyed these past years a number of marijuana plantations in the upland villages of Tampakan, especially near the boundary with Columbio town in Sultan Kudarat and Kiblawan, Davao del Sur. (PNA)
