Tabuk City, Kalinga – In an attempt to renounce the title of Tinglayan municipality as the ‘top marijuana producer’ in the Cordillera, Task Force Chumanchil – a group whose members are officials and personnel of national-line agencies, barangay officials and religious sectors has been organized by the local government unit of Tinglayan.
The formation of a task force is seen by Mayor Sacrament Gumilab as a promising means to rally all agencies in supporting individuals and families in their transition to farming crops, breeding cattle or producing goods or products and finally leave marijuana cultivation for good.
In the executive order by the mayor signed November 14, majority of the populace of identified drug affected barangays in the municipality are farmers who find marijuana cultivation to be the more lucrative agricultural enterprise because of the exponential demand and easy marketability at source.
Said barangays include Bugnay, Buscalan, Loccong, Butbut Proper, Ngibat, Tulgao East, and Tulgao West.
With the high demand for said weed, the mayor pointed out that marijuana industries in said barangays are considered as "Green Gold Industries" by the locals.
“Marijuana cultivation is a lucrative industry, and its marketability is easy because the planters need not travel to sell or advertise their products for it is the customers that reach it in their barangays,” the executive order reads.
Gumilab also pointed out that the lack of farm-to-market road in said areas have also impacted the choice of the locals in deciding not to abandon the illegal activity.
“The lack of farm-to-market road makes it extremely burdensome and impractical for the farmers to venture into the legitimate agricultural enterprise as they can only carry the maximum load of their harvest to the market while the rest would rot in the farm,” he wrote.
In conclusion, the mayor said it is ‘poverty that drives these people into the marijuana business even if it cost their freedom, as evidenced by their numerous numbers in the prison cells all over the Philippines.’
With the formation of the group, the mayor is hopeful the formulation of a comprehensive development plan or a holistic would systematically address the problem.
To start with their task, the group convened on Wednesday, November 23, at the Davidson Hotel and started crafting development plans – a signal that government agencies in Kalinga are serious in the fight against the particular illegal drugs introduced by foreigners in Tinglayan decades ago.
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