LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Mayor Romeo K. Salda recognized the vigilance of concerned residents in the municipality that resulted to the discovery of a number of marijuana plantation sites in Sitios Tuva and Kolong, Barangay Wangal that resulted to the destruction of over P3.5 million worth of marijuana plants in separate operations.
Last February 17, 2020, combined police operatives and anti-narcotics agents destroyed a total of P550,000 worth of marijuana plants that were planted in 4 separate plantation areas in Sitio Tuva, Wangal, here, upon the tip of concerned residents living in the area.
During a follow-up operation LAST Thursday, the government operating troops were again able to discover and destroy over P2.9 million worth of marijuana plants in four separate plantation sites in Sitio Kolong, barangay Wangal.
“We are grateful to the concerned residents who provided our law enforcers on the presence of the marijuana plantation sites in the remote part of the municipality. We really need the vigilance of our people so that we will be able to thwart the attempts of some unscrupulous individuals to pursue their illegal activities in the town which we actually do not condone, because what we want is for our people to live in a peaceful and orderly community,” Mayor Salda stressed.
The local chief executive also commended the operating troops led by Police Maj. Cleff Vencio, officer-in-charge of the La Trinidad Municipal Police Station, for their unrelenting and uncompromising efforts in the implementation of the government’s anti-drug campaign that cussed the eventual destruction of the illegal marijuana plantations right in the capital town of the province.
According to him, the municipal government will not tolerate the proliferation of marijuana plantation sites in the municipality because it has always been supportive of the government’s aggressive anti-drug campaign which had been instrumental in significantly reducing the commission of crimes and resulted to the prevalence of decent peace and order situation in the town over the past several years.
For his part, Maj. Vencio disclosed that combined police operatives and anti-narcotics agents are now conducting an investigation to ascertain the identities of the suspected marijuana cultivators who had been seen by witnesses to have planted the marijuana plants in the said area for the filing of the appropriate cases against them.
Initially, the police official stated that there are 4 persons of interest who had been identified by the witnesses as responsible for the cultivation of the marijuana plants in the said area, thus, what is being ascertained is their identities to support the filing of the cases and the issuance of summons against them to answer the appropriate charges that will be filed against them.
Vencio called on the public to continue their vigilance against the illegal activities being done by unscrupulous individuals and for them to report to the concerned authorities such illegal activities for the immediate conduct of the necessary investigation that will cause the arrest of erring individuals in the municipality.
By HENT