23,431 marijuana plants burned after tip-offs in remote Loreto
On 4 July 2026 soldiers, police and PDEA Region 13 uprooted 23,431 marijuana plants valued at six million pesos on a plantation in Sitio Bunlak, Barangay Kasapa, Loreto, Agusan del Sur, after villagers and former insurgents reported the site; armed guards fled and no one was arrested.
🇵🇭 Sitio Bunlak, Barangay Kasapa, Loreto, Agusan del Sur · Philippines
On Saturday 4 July 2026, personnel from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency’s Caraga office,
Agusan del Sur police and the Army’s 60th Infantry Battalion uprooted 23,431 fully grown marijuana
plants in Sitio Bunlak, Barangay Kasapa, Loreto, Agusan del Sur.[1][2]Authorities valued the
crop at six million pesos.[1][2]
The Philippine News Agency said the plantation covered about 16,000 square metres roughly 207
kilometres from Loreto’s municipal police station, and that police had identified a cultivator but
made no arrest.[1]Philstar reported that villagers and traditional leaders, including former
members of the New People’s Army who had returned to farming, had tipped off authorities about the
two-hectare farm.[2]
Armed men guarding the site fled as teams approached from two directions.[2]After samples were
collected for laboratory examination, the remaining plants were burned on site.[1][2]
Photos and video
Uprooted marijuana plants from the Loreto operation, as shown with Philstar's report.Photo details
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.
