Drug prevention programs of the City Anti-Drugs Abuse Council (Cadac) are not only being implemented here by law enforcement agencies nowadays, but also by some of Baguio's public high schools and annexes.

This was disclosed in the latest Cadac synergy meeting in City Hall recently, where not only the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) made known their programs and accomplishments, but also the Baguio City National High School (BCNHS) and the Pines City National High School (PCNHS).

The synergy meeting, said Cadac action officer and Baguio Vice Mayor Daniel Farinas, was held to consult and discuss drug prevention activities with stakeholders in the city.

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THE neutralization of two drug groups highlights the accomplishments of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) regional office on its sixth anniversary this month.

With the theme "Prevent, Destroy and Enforce as We Aim for a Drug-Free Philippines," Chief Inspector Edgar Apalla, officer-in-charge of the PDEA regional office, said this "marks off our accomplishments for the past 12 months in our fight for a Cordillera community liberated from the dangerous drugs trade and abuse, and drug-related crimes."

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THE Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Internal Affairs Service (PDEA-IAS) will conduct its own inquiry into the alleged involvement of four of its Baguio City agents in the reported extortion or "hulidap" incident over the weekend.

Superintendent Bernardo Borrinaga, newly installed PDEA regional director for the Cordillera, said he already forwarded the inquest information to their central office with regard the arrest of Police Officer 2 Erwin Morales Garcia by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI)-Cordillera during an entrapment operation Saturday night along Session Road.

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SOME P1.5 million worth of dried marijuana bricks were seized by operatives of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in a series of operations conducted in Baguio City early this week.

The drug operations also resulted in the arrest of two women, allegedly couriers of an organized drug syndicate operating in the city.

Superintendent Bernardo Borrinaga, PDEA director for Cordillera, identified the suspects as Jocelyn Korangaw Gakayan, 30; and Maria Diga Wanayan, 25, both residents of San Carlos Heights, Irisan.

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LA TRINIDAD, Benguet -- Almost P660 million worth of assorted illegal drugs were confiscated and destroyed by members of the Police Regional Office (PRO) in Cordillera during the first half of the year.

Chief Superintendent Noe Wong, director of the PRO in Cordillera, said among the confiscated items were 2,996,800 fully-grown marijuana plants, 321,646 half-grown seedlings of the same cannabis sativa plants, 437,188.57 grams of dried marijuana leaves and seeds, and 90.8 grams of shabu.

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CAMP DANGWA, La Trinidad, Benguet -- Almost P417 million worth of illegal drugs, which is almost double of the whole haul seized or destroyed by the Police Regional Office (PRO) in the Cordillera for the year 2004, was confiscated since Chief Supt. Jesus Verzosa was installed as PRO-Cordillera director from December 25, 2004, up to the present date.

"Time and again, drug-free communities in the region can only be possibly realized through a strengthened partnership and cooperation between the different sectors of society," Verzosa said.

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ALMOST P3 million worth of dried marijuana bricks were intercepted by two teams of policemen in separate operations conducted in Kalinga.

Chief Superintendent Jesus Verzosa, director of the Police Regional Office in the Cordillera, said the larger of the two seizures was made when the first team intercepted a passenger jeep transporting a total of 94,950 grams of the illegal cannabis sativa hemp along the Kalinga highway late Monday morning.

This haul of 104 bricks, which reportedly had a Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) market value of P2,373,750, was confiscated by a team led by Senior Insp. Nachor Baucas of the Rizal Municipal Police Station in sitio Campo, Liwan East, Rizal, Kalinga, at around 11:30 a.m.

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OVER P303-million worth of marijuana and other assorted drugs were either confiscated or destroyed by personnel of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) regional office in 108 operations conducted last year.

Supt. Danilo Flordeliza, PDEA regional director for the Cordillera, said the P303,090,160 worth of seized and/or destroyed drugs in 2004 included approximately 1,449,346 fully-grown marijuana or cannabis sativa hemp plants, 49 bricks of dried MJ, 38,902.1 grams of the same dried illegal plant and 1,985.3 grams of concentrated marijuana resin or hashish. A total amount of 265.82 grams of shabu or methamphetamine hydrochloride was also confiscated during the same period.

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CAMP DANGWA, La Trinidad -- Around P10,840,000 worth of marijuana was uprooted and destroyed by personnel of the Benguet Provincial Police Office in an eradication operation conducted in a remote sitio of Kapangan on Tuesday.

Although no suspected cultivator or plantation owner was arrested, token samples of the uprooted illegal cannabis sativa hemp plant were transported to the Kapangan Municipal Police Station later for evidentiary purposes.

Chief Supt. Rowland Albano, director of the Police Regional Office in the Cordillera, on Saturday said the eradication operation was led by Insp. Darnell Dulnuan, officer-in-charge of the Kapangan MPS, in sitio Lao-angan, Barangay Gadang of the same town at around 10AM of November 16.

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CAMP DANGWA -- The Police Regional Office in the Cordilleras reported that over 90 percent or 215 of the original 238 drug users and pushers identified in the region as of June 16 last year have already been neutralized.

However, another 31 illegal drug users and pushers have also been newly-identified since then, raising the total number of known suspects as of February 15 this year to 54.

This was aside from the clearing of over 88 percent of all reported drug-affected barangays within the Cordilleras during that same eight-month period and the identification of 11 other newly-affected barangays since then.

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