375,000 marijuana plants uprooted on the Sugpon–Bacun boundary
Philippine army and police forces uprooted 375,000 fully grown marijuana plants valued at about ₱75 million from a 25-hectare plantation on the Sugpon, Ilocos Sur–Bacun, Benguet boundary after discovering it on Saturday 3 February 2007; the two-day operation was still under way when the report was filed.
🇵🇭 Sugpon, Ilocos Sur and Bacun, Benguet boundary · Philippines
Soldiers and police uprooted 375,000 fully grown marijuana plants worth about ₱75 million from a
mountain plantation straddling Sugpon in Ilocos Sur and Bacun in Benguet.[1]Chief Superintendent
Leopoldo Bataoil, the Philippine National Police director for Region 1, said the plantation covered
about 25 hectares and that the operation had already lasted two days without all plants removed.[1]
Discovery and reinforcements
Army Colonel Loreto Rirao said troops under Captain Edmund delos Santos of the 50th Infantry
Battalion, the 53rd Military Intelligence Company and the Ilocos Sur provincial police began the
mission on Saturday morning after finding the fields during an anti-rebel sweep.[1]Reinforcements
and helicopter gunships were called in to speed uprooting and burning, Bataoil said, because
marijuana cultivation had become a major NPA income source in the area.[1]Neither Bataoil nor
Rirao reported any arrests when the Star filed its story.[1]Lieutenant General Bonifacio Ramos of
Northern Luzon Command praised the joint force, but the article gives no court or rebel response.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Only the Philippine Star account could be opened; no second independent outlet was found for this raid.
The article quotes PNP Region 1 director Leopoldo Bataoil on an operation still in progress and does not report arrests or charges against cultivators.
The CPP/NPA link to the plantation is attributed to police and military spokesmen; the story names no individual rebels.
The publication date is 5 February 2007 while Colonel Loreto Rirao dated the discovery to the preceding Saturday morning (3 February).
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.
