COTABATO CITY (September 22, 2025) — Officials destroyed on Monday, September 22, using an incinerator in a renewable energy plant P87 million worth of narcotics seized in separate operations in the Bangsamoro region in the past three years.
The shabu, marijuana and cocaine they burned at the powerplant of the cornstarch manufacturer Lamsan Incorporated in Barangay Simuay in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao del Norte were first used as evidence in drawn out judicial proceedings in different courts in Central Mindanao.
The symbolic destruction of the seized narcotics was led by Gil Cesario Castro, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Maguindanao del Norte Vice Gov. Marshall Sinsuat, BARMM’s police director, Brig. Gen. Jaysen De Guzman, the state prosecutor for Region 12, Mariam April Veloso Mastura, and Bangsamoro Chief Minister Abrulrauf Macacua.
Castro, Macacua and De Guzman separately told reporters at the sideline of the event that they are grateful to the local communities for supporting the government’s anti-narcotics campaign in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
“Community support is very important in all law-enforcement activities of the government,” De Guzman said.
BARMM covers the provinces of Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, Lanao del Norte, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi and the cities of Lamitan, Marawi and Cotabato.
Castro said mayors, provincial governors and field commanders of the Moro National Liberation Front and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which have separate peace agreements with the national government, were instrumental in the seizure of big volumes of shabu and marijuana from traffickers entrapped in separate operations since the creation of BARMM in 2019.
“To all of them, we are are grateful,” Castro said.
Photo shows the confiscated narcotics that officials together destroyed on Monday.