Authorities destroyed P1.34 million worth of marijuana in Benguet, according to the Philippine National Police (PNP) on Sunday.

General Debold Sinas, PNP chief, said a total of 6,700 fully-grown marijuana plants and 3,250 marijuana seedlings with an estimated street value of P1,340,000 were destroyed.

He said all the prohibited plants that were burned were discovered in three separate operations.

Citing police reports, Sinas said the Bakun Municipal Police Station raided a 700-squaremeter marijuana farm in Sitio Bulisay, Kayapa, Bakun, Benguet last Thursday and discovered 2,800 fully grown marijuana plants in a communal forest.

On Friday, Benguet police and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) operatives raided a 350-squaremeter marijuana farm in Sitio Wasan, Kayapa, Bakun, Benguet and destroyed 1,400 fully grown marijuana plants estimated to be worth P280,000.

And last Saturday, a joint PNP-PDEA team trekked another 1,150-squaremeter marijuana farm located in the tri-boundary of Sitio Balbalnag, Sitio Tebteb and Sitio Yong-awan of Barangay Badeo, Kibungan, Benguet and discovered 2,500 fully grown marijuana plants and 3,250 marijuana seedlings.

Sinas reiterated his instruction to press supply reduction efforts in operations against illegal drugs.

He said police operations against cultivation, production and trafficking of marijuana will continue without let-up despite a recent action by the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs (UN-CND) to remove cannabis from Schedule IV of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.

“Cannabis in the form of plants, products and its derivatives is still a dangerous drug as defined under Republic Act No. 9165 or The Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002,” he said. Ella Dionisio/DMS