PDEA says 3 million marijuana plants uprooted in tri-border drive
PDEA said a joint drive with police, soldiers and NBI officers had uprooted about three million marijuana plants across some 14 hectares at the Ilocos Sur-La Union-Benguet tri-boundary since 20 January 2010, valuing the haul at P1 billion. One person was arrested, and the drive's first three days alone had yielded 765,700 plants and one arrest.
🇵🇭 Tri-boundary of Ilocos Sur, La Union and Benguet (Sapdaan, Santol, La Union) · Philippines
Joint elements of the PDEA, the police, the Armed Forces and the National Bureau of Investigation had been uprooting marijuana since 20 January in the mountain hinterlands at the tri-boundaries of Ilocos Sur, La Union and Benguet.[1]PDEA Region 1 director Roberto Opena said on Sunday that the drive had so far destroyed about three million fully grown plants plus seedlings and seeds growing on some 14 hectares, calling it the biggest single marijuana haul in the country.[1]The agency valued the destroyed plants at P1 billion under the Dangerous Drugs Board’s guideline of P300 per kilo, and said one person had been arrested at a plantation site, with troops ferried in by two Air Force helicopters.[1]
An earlier phase
The regional weekly’s account of the drive’s first three days, which ended on Friday, put the wipe-out at 765,700 fully grown plants, 16,900 seedlings and 370 grams of seeds worth P153.8 million across 15 sites on the Kibungan-Sugpon-Santol boundaries.[2]It named the arrested cultivator as Juliano Tapaya, 48, of Sapdaan village in Santol, and said two companions escaped as troops scoured the area.[2]The operation ran under the police’s Master Plan Sangbanat and the PDEA’s Oplan Farmville.[2]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
The P1 billion running total and the P153.8 million three-day figure come from different stages of the same drive; the report uses the later PDEA update.
The PNA account names no arrested person; the weekly names Juliano Tapaya from the earlier phase, and it is unclear whether he is the same person.
The same weekly also reports a 103 kg marijuana-brick seizure from a bus in Santa Maria, Isabela on 21 January, a separate event left out here.
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.
