A 43-year-old chef was caught red-handed with marijuana in a buy-bust operation by anti-drug agents last April 7 here.


Edward Mendoza Jarencio, who identified himself as a brother of former Philippine Basketball Association player Alfredo “Pido” Jarencio, sold 80.50 grams of dried marijuana leaves to a Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) – Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) agent acting as poseur-buyer in a buy bust operation.

When frisked, he yielded an additional 18.20 grams of the dangerous drug and a rolled aluminum foil containing the same. The total dried marijuana nabbed from Jarencio had a Dangerous Drugs Board value of P2,467.50.


Jarencio is a graduate of Hotel and Restaurant Management, native of Quezon City and resident of Lourdes Subdivision, Baguio City. He works as chef in one of the establishments along Session Road.


Meanwhile, PDEA–CAR’s Benguet Special Enforcement Team and Kibungan Municipal Police Station (MPS) destroyed 1,000 full-gown marijuana plants with estimated DDB worth of P200, 000, in an eradication operation at Sitio Bileng, Sagpat, Kibungan, Benguet last April 6.


The approximately 200 square meters marijuana cultivation site, concealed by chayote and banana plantations is about an hour of up and down hill walk from the nearest area that can be reached by vehicle.


Earlier, operatives of PDEA–CAR, the Benguet Police Provincial Public Safety Company, and the Bakun MPS uprooted 5,500 full-grown marijuana plants and 2,400 marijuana seedlings and burned these on-site at Bagu, Bakun, Benguet during a marijuana eradication in a 1,112-square-meter marijuana plantation. The destroyed marijuana plants had an overall DDB value of P1,196,000. *(PIA CAR with reports from PDEA CAR)