Amidst the gardens, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the trucks below.
[With our apologies to John McCrae who wrote the most famous poppy poem, In Flanders Field.]
For those of you who have not yet heard the story, our kailiyan Lilia Kidpalos of Atok, Benguet unsuspectingly planted some opium poppy amidst her other flowers. Reports say that the poppy seeds have been accidentally included when she requested flower seeds from London for her cutflower farm. [Read reports here and here.]
Opium is illegal. But Lilia could be spared from criminal liability because of her age (73). Still the Cordillera police is “studying the legal steps to take to pin the woman.”
Duh. Message to anti-drug authorities: For crying out loud, there are more important things to do than prosecuting an old woman who, even you yourselves concede, did not know what she was doing. If you are really serious about your anti-drug campaign, run after big time drug lords and drug traffickers. You might even know them personally.
Now that the poppy plants are being guarded by policemen, am I the only one hoping that the guards should also be guarded? I guess I’m kind of cynical with drug law enforcers because it is not uncommon that they also turn out to be drug law violators.
INFO SOURCES: GMANews. PHOTO CREDIT: AP via GMANews-TV
Great to be back again at blogsphere after a week of soul searching and seclusion. Mr Billig, if our law enforcers have brains at all (am sure they do, he he), they should keep tab of travel itineraries of her london contact. Timeline is critical. Is “london sibling” always in Benguet during harvest time? Just a thought.. Having said that, ooppps! my brother’s wife is also Kidpalos. Hmmmm, might just do the harvesting myself!! ha ha…always a pleasure to visit your great site, da best….goodhealth always.
TruBlue
Hi TruBlue,
Welcome back. Mukhang napaaga ang inyong Holy Week ah. Hehe binigyan mo pa ng idea ang ating mga law enforcers eh baka naman the London sibling also didn’t know that it was opium.
Sige you go harvest it at itanim natin sa buong Cordillera and then we control the whole country (see letter C in part II of this topic) 🙂
Thanks
i’m ambivalent about opium. mainly because it’s a sedative (a downer), one component being morphine. it’s hardly a psychotic drug (and you can quote me that I’ve tried both morphine (legally in a hospital environment) and you need to process opium. merely planting it does not do any harm.
incidentally, one needs to check this case out as Poppies are grown here in England because it worn to show appreciation to WW veterans! They do look like opium poppies!!! How sure are the authorities that is was opium???? Impossible for it to be mixed with the seed packet.