Marijuana cultivators, drug pushers unwanted in MP

IN SUPPORT to the national government’s campaign against illegal drugs, the Provincial Board ( PB) in Mountain Province recently passed Resolution No. 2020-401 "Declaring marijuana cultivators and pushers as Persona Non Grata in Mountain Province."

According to Vice Governor Francis Tauli, the resolution aims to safeguard the welfare of the community especially the youth from the harmful effects of dangerous drugs on their overall well-being.

Under the resolution, the Philippine

Drug Enforcement Agency’s ( PDEA) apprehensions of drug traffickers under the guise of being tourists alarmed the officialdom of the province, thus, the PB deemed it imperative to declare individuals involved in planting, using and manufacturing illegal drugs as ‘persona nongrata’ to make the citizens aware that such activities are illegal and are not tolerated.

Tauli said this is also in support to the different resolutions that were passed by the Provincial Anti- Drug Abuse Council, the 10 municipal local government units and their respective Municipal Anti- Drug Abuse Council and all the Barangay Anti- Drug Abuse Councils.

Mountain Province has been declared as a drug cleared province since 2017, however, reports from the PDEA confirmed that Mountain Province is serving as the most convenient route path for the transportation of illegal drugs.

In one instance, Provincial Anti- Drug Abuse Council Chair and Governor Bonifacio Lacwasan, Jr. clarified if Mountain Province is the only route of individuals carrying illegal drugs to which the PDEA replied that Mt. Province is not the trans- shipment point but the trans-shipment path.

PDEA added the plantations eradicated in the province were of small areas only, except of the conflicted boundary area between Butbut, Bugnay and Betwagan and it is believed that the cultivators from the area are from Kalinga because the presence of marijuana plantations were reported by residents of Sadanga.

Meanwhile, the Pro

vincial Government thru Lacwasan, entered into a Memorandum of Agreement with PDEA for the provision of an office to house the PDEA – Mountain

Province provincial office to show its commitment in maintaining the drug- cleared status of the province. MP Public Information Office