Philippine National Police Chief, Gen. Camilo Pancratius Cascolan, has further mobilized the Police Regional Office-Cordillera to go after marijuana cultivators in the region.
“We will sustain our operations against marijuana. We will continue to patrol the areas where these marijuana plants thrive,” Cascolan saidin his visit to Camp Bado Dangwa in La Trinidad, Benguet
In an interview with reporters, Cascolan said PRO-Cor will also extend its investigation on supposed owners of lots recently discovered to have been planted with marijuana.
“We will evaluate and review. If the lot is titled to someone else, then we can track them better,” he said.
He has acknowledged that many cultivators evade being arrested while the regional police command and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency have been successful in conducting marijuana eradications resulting to the destruction of millions of worth of the illegal plant.
Cascolan said he has instructed the police command to strengthen its investigations against cultivators and smugglers of marijuana.
The PNP chief led the burning of 164 kilos of marijuana worth close to P20 million during his visit. The marijuana plants and bricks are part of the pieces of evidence seized by police and anti-narcotics operatives.
Meanwhile, Cascolan said part of his agenda as the chief PNP is to localize the place of assignments of the members of the police force, which means that policemen and women should be assigned to their places of origin, or closest to their residences.
He said many of those that wanted to be stationed to their hometowns are police from the Cordillera and Ilocos regions.
“Prioritizing the welfare of every personnel of the PNP, one of my main thrusts is the localization of assignment,” Cascolan said in a recent press briefing. – Ofelia C. Empian
