# Kalinga now a major marijuana producer



## FruityBud (Jan 8, 2009)

Baguio City, PhilippinesFormer actor Dave Brodett testified at the "Alabang Boys" congressional hearings that his nephew, detained drug suspect Richard, traveled all the way to Sagada, Mountain Province, to buy marijuana.

But officials of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in the Cordillera said the town is no longer a source of the illegal weed.

Sagada used to supply hashish, a byproduct of marijuana, until law enforcers closed down an underground laboratory there in the 1990s, said Inspector Edgar Apalla, PDEA Cordillera director.

Richard Brodett, Jorge Joseph and Joseph Tecson were arrested for alleged drug trafficking on September 20, 2008, but their detention drew headlines in December when PDEA personnel claimed that they had been offered up to P20 million in bribes to drop the case.

Sagada draws foreign tourists, so some form of illegal drug peddling still occurs there "but on a small scale," Apalla said.

But Kalinga may be the real source of the marijuana bought allegedly by Brodett's relatives, Apalla said.

Kalinga has become the chief supplier of marijuana in the country because tribal conflicts there insulate it from intensified police operations, he said.

"[Police] have been unable to penetrate three mountainous districts of Tinglayan, Kalinga, occupied by the Butbut community because of fears that clan members would instinctively protect their relatives when we make arrests," Apalla said.

He said not all farmers in the community plant marijuana but traditional peace pacts between other tribes called "bodong" still rule this part of the province.

This covers policemen who are natives of the place because they are bound by their family's bodong commitments.

"Policemen who are not bound by the same code are also helpless because they may not harm or injure people who are protected by bodong," Apalla said.

PDEA once classified Cordillera as the primary supplier of marijuana in the country, but Apalla said this was based on the frequency of traffic.

"There are also marijuana plantations in Mindanao, but since Metro Manila is the biggest market, its closest big supplier is still the Cordillera," he said.

PDEA has sustained its campaign to destroy marijuana plantations, he said.

The latest PDEA accomplishment report valued destroyed or confiscated marijuana bricks and other illegal drugs here at more than P271 million.

Apart from drugs confiscated during shipping, PDEA has been monitoring three mountains in Kalinga where marijuana is grown.

Although the weed survives in any season, farmers have peak harvest schedules for the illegal plant, Apalla said.

Farmers harvest marijuana from November to May the following year because it would be impossible to dry the plant during the rainy season, he said.

PDEA also found little evidence of an organization among marijuana growers because the volume of marijuana shipped to Metro Manila is never the same.

"Sometimes, it's the farmers themselves who come down to Manila selling a brick or two of marijuana. Sometimes it comes down in a van, so production relies on who buys [the illegal weed]," Apalla said.

Baguio City and Bontoc, Mountain Province, remain key transshipment points for marijuana, although PDEA has mapped out two new exit points for illegal drug traffickers who try to avoid police checkpoints.

One such exit leads traffickers to Cagayan Valley, he said.

Apalla said what circulates in Baguio is limited only to marijuana and shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride)

"We have yet to crack open a network selling the designer drug, ecstasy," he said.

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