TINGLAYAN, Kalinga– Exhausted by the persistent problem of marijuana cultivation in his town even after many years of looking for solutions to stop it, Mayor Sacrament Gumilab bats for drastic measures to once and for all eradicate the illegal propagation of the prohibited plant.
“It is high time to consider applying chemicals to stop marijuana from growing in perennial plantations. In the usual agriculture industry, herbicides and other weed killers are allowed and why not on marijuana, he said.
Year-in and year-out, uprooting and burning operations way back during the time of Fidel Ramos when he was the Philippine Constabulary Chief, were carried out by law enforcement agencies. But up to the present, the same plantations are the subject of anti-drug eradication missions, Gumilab said.
Efforts have been done to discourage locals in few barangays from growing marijuana. Some of the interventions they proposed during barangay consultations for them to stop maintaining marijuana such as communal irrigation systems, potable water systems, access roads, schools, among others were provided,” Gumilab said. However, he admitted they fail to lure them to engage in alternative livelihood activities preferring the easy cash from marijuana.
He shared that there are already more than a hundred locals involved in the cannabis trade who were jailed and yet they don’t abandon the illegal trade.
Using chemicals to eradicate marijuana is the option he is proposing. If it succeeds, a law enforcement unit must be stationed on cleared plantations to discourage locals from growing marijuana and to ensure that locals will never again develop new plantation areas, the mayor said.
Department of the Interior and Local Government Provincial Director Mayer Max Adong also shared his view of making plantation areas as sites for development and livelihood projects through the convergence efforts of concerned government agencies.
Through this approach, alternative livelihood activities are introduced through agricultural production technologies suited to the area to make Tinglayan the vegetable garden of Kalinga as it was known three decades ago. **JDP/PAB-PIA CAR, Kalinga
