NEWS BRIEFS | 24 February 2025

Surigao del Sur town pushes Robusta coffee produce

The local government of Tagbina in Surigao del Sur is going all out promoting the town’s Robusta coffee and coffee jam.

Mary Vil Cruz Chan, provincial tourism officer, said the two products from Tagbina town received positive reviews in the recent Travel Tour Expo 2025 held at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City early this month.

Chan said the positive reviews reinforced the promotions of the local government of Tagbina that it is a key player in the Philippine coffee industry and a model for agri-based entrepreneurship that can boost rural livelihood.

₱10-million worth of marijuana plants is Sulu destroyed 

Anti-drug operatives supported by well-armed soldiers and policemen raided a farm and seized ₱10.2-million worth of marijuana plants in Sulu last Friday.

Gil Cesario Castro, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), said their operatives uprooted and burned 11,950 marijuana plants in a farm located in the boundary of the municipalities of Luuk and Kalingalan Caluang.

Castro said the caretaker of the 1,950 square-meter farm identified  as “Mahdi” was not present when the operatives and soldiers came. 

Shabu worth ₱2.21 million seized in MisOr

Police seized ₱2.21-million worth of shabu in two separate operations in the town of Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental last Friday.

Brig. Gen. Jaysen de Guzman, police regional chief in Northern Mindanao, said the first operation was conducted in the wee hours of the morning against a certain “Boboy” in his residence in Zone 11, Barangay Siyayon.

Guzman said an hour later, police raided the neighboring house of a certain “Cardo.”

He said both suspects evaded arrest but police found a total of 35 plastic sachets containing shabu.