LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Cordillera policemen are asking for a replacement of the already decommissioned four-seater Robinson Raven 44 helicopter to sustain their campaign against marijuana culivation in the Cordillera hinterlands.
Cordillera police director Chief Supt. Benjamin Magalong said they are asking the national police headquarters for another chopper for their operations.
A police colonel, a pilot and another police officer escaped death on Saturday after strong winds gushed through the RR44’s rotor forcing them to crash land it on Mount Bitolayongan in Luccong, Tinglayan town Kalinga during the height of the marijuana plantation raids.
The helicopter was earlier used in surveying Cordillera mountains for marijuana plantations.
Magalong said they were able to confirm marijuana plantations through that helicopter.
Government forces netted at least P156.81-million worth of marijuana plants, seeds and its derivatives in the five-hectare plantations scattered all over the mountain.
It is so far the biggest find and haul this year in the country, said PDEA-Cordillera director Ronald Allan Ricardo. - Artemio A. Dumlao