15,000 marijuana stalks uprooted and burned in Cebu City's Tagbao
Police uprooted 15,000 fully grown marijuana plants in three plantations in Sitio Mangabon, Barangay Tagbao, Cebu City, on 25 February 2020, and burned them on the spot. The City Mobile Force Company valued the plants at least P6 million, said it was still identifying the grower, and reported no arrests.
🇵🇭 Sitio Mangabon, Barangay Tagbao, Cebu City, Cebu · Philippines
Plants destroyed
15,000
Agencies
Cebu City Police Office City Mobile Force Company, 🇵🇭PDEA
Personnel of the City Mobile Force Company of the Cebu City Police Office
uprooted fully grown marijuana plants in Sitio Mangabon, Barangay Tagbao, Cebu
City, on Tuesday, 25 February 2020.[1]Police put the plants at 15,000 stalks
across three plantations, worth at least P6 million, the biggest marijuana haul
in Cebu City that year.[1]
Lieutenant Colonel Randy Korret, the CMFC chief, said a tip about a plantation
in Tagbao prompted the operation.[1]Korret said the plantations were hidden
behind bamboo trees on steep ground, and that drones flown over the area failed
to spot them.[1]The Cebu Provincial Police Office had warned the team to be
cautious because of reports that the plantations had traps.[1]
Police said they were still investigating who owned the plantation, and that the
cultivators would face charges under the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of
2002, the Philippines’ main drug law.[1]The uprooted plants were burned
straight away after police obtained permission from the regional Philippine Drug
Enforcement Agency office.[2]Bombo Radyo reported that the grower was not at
the site during the operation, and gave the village as Sitio Manggabon in
Barangay Tagba-o.[2]
Photos and video
Personnel of the City Mobile Force Company stand with uprooted fully grown marijuana plants in Barangay Tagbao, Cebu City. Contributed photo.Photo details
Bombo Radyo gives the village as Sitio Manggabon in Barangay Tagba-o and also calls the location part of the city of Toledo; this report uses Sitio Mangabon, Barangay Tagbao, Cebu City, as given by Inquirer.net.
The Inquirer does not say what happened to the uprooted stalks; Bombo Radyo says they were burned after PDEA-7 clearance.
No area in hectares and no weight in kilograms were published.
No one was reported arrested and no charge sheet or court outcome was published; police said they were still identifying the owner.
A Cebu Daily News article on the same operation returned an access error and had no archive, so its details are left out.
The page photo is captioned as CMFC personnel with uprooted plants in Tagbao but carries only a contributed-photo credit, so the photographer is not known.
Bombo Radyo's article also reports a separate drug operation in Lapu-Lapu City that is not part of this event.
Police confiscated 2,230 fully grown marijuana plants from three plantation sites in Kapangan, Benguet, which police valued at P446,000. The eradication was carried out separately by provincial operating units with no plantation arrests named.
Cordillera police destroyed 548,130 marijuana plants and 9,000 seedlings in 14 operations from 25 October to 1 November 2026, arresting six drug suspects. A parallel manhunt arrested 28 other fugitives, bringing the week's total reported arrests to 34.
Police destroyed three marijuana plantations in Kapangan and Kibungan, Benguet, on 30 October 2026, seizing 1,150 mature plants and 1,000 seedlings. Police valued the plants at P270,000 and burned them on site while seeking those responsible.
Kalinga police uprooted and burned 544,000 fully grown marijuana plants across seven sites in Barangay Loccong, Tinglayan, on 27 October 2026, an operation the provincial office valued at about ₱108.8 million. No cultivators were arrested.
