Elements of the Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force (AIDSOTF) uprooted some 500,000 marijuana plants valued at about 100 million pesos in a plantation in Benguet believed to be owned by New People’s Army (NPA) rebels.[1] AIDSOTF director Marcelo Ele Jr. reported that his men found the plantation in a far-flung area about 7,120 feet above sea level at the tri-boundaries of Benguet, Mountain Province and Ifugao.[1]
Supported by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, the task force raided the plantation at Sitio Soukan, Barangay Lam-ayan, Buguias, Benguet.[1] Of the 500,000 plants uprooted, 300,000 were fully grown with fruiting tops, 150,000 were half-grown and 50,000 were seedlings; the raiding team also found a manual on insect sprayers and insecticides.[1] The task force report stated that the plantation was maintained and cultivated by local communist terrorists as their source of funds.[1] A later Philippine Star account identified the effort as operation plan “Greengrass”, run by Ele with the Cordillera police after a civilian informant’s tip; its agents walked eight hours to reach the plantations.[2]
Burned on site
No one was arrested in the operation.[1] Because the police had no capability to airlift the huge volume of uprooted plants to Camp Crame in Quezon City, Ele said, they burned the plants in Barangay Lam-ayan; only four sacks were presented by Interior Secretary Angelo Reyes and PNP chief Arturo Lomibao at a press conference at Camp Crame.[1] Reyes congratulated the participating policemen, saying the momentum of the anti-illegal-drugs campaign would keep going and accelerate.[1] The December account gave the same Soukan haul as 500,000 plants valued at about P100.75 million and said police, villagers and regional officials signed a livelihood agreement meant to stop residents returning to marijuana cultivation.[2]
