CAMP BADO DANGWA, La Trinidad, Benguet – More than P23.5 million worth of illegal drugs while forty alleged drug suspects were arrested by combined police operatives and anti-narcotics agents during separate anti-drug operations conducted in the different parts of the region recently.
Among the 40 individuals arrested, two were recently apprehended in a buy bust operation. Ian Terry Ladyong Olat, a resident of Umangil St. Dagupan West, Tabuk City was apprehended recently at Francisco, Dagupan West, Tabuk City, Kalinga while Philip Louie C. Peralta was cornered at Zone 4, Bangued, Abra recently.
Along with the arrest of Olat was the confiscation of P1,000.00 buy bust money, motorcycle key, one Oppo cellular phone, and one small sachet containing suspected shabu with DDB value of P925.48. On the other hand, Peralta yielded 3 sachets containing suspected shabu, P2,000.00 boodle money, P5,520.00 cash money, swiss knife, and a motorcycle.
Likewise, marijuana eradication which was aggressively conducted resulted in the uprooting and destruction of P23,201,300 worth of marijuana plants and the filing of cases against four identified cultivators.
Benguet Police Provincial Office (BPPO) initiated the most number of eradication with 11 operations thereby destroying a marijuana plants having a total value of P21,041,300.00. Moreover, Mountain Province PPO eradicated marijuana plants with a Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) value of P2,160,000.
As an overall accomplishment, a total of 44 successful police operations resulted in the arrest of 40 drug suspects and the seizure of 68 sachets of suspected shabu, 2 sachets of marijuana, 30 marijuana of marijuana oil, 3 marijuana tubes, 6 marijuana bricks, 68,924 marijuana plants, 2,100 seedlings, 9,500 marijuana stalks and 46.51 kilos of marijuana with an overall total DDB value of P23,422,598.44.
PROCOR PNP vows to make PNP’s presence felt by the Cordillera people through an intensified fight against illegal drugs and to raise the level of anti-drug operations higher. “We will continue to perform our mandate with equal fervor and intensity to keep our communities safe from the wicked clutches of dangerous drugs and we believe that the continuing war on drugs is winnable when people in the community are sincerely committed to help us.”
By Dexter A. See