CAMP SK PENDATUN, Maguindanao, Philippines (PNA) -- Police and military authorities seized some 5,000 marijuana bushes and seedlings in a raid jointly conducted in Matanog, Maguindanao.

Citing a report from Maguindanao police director Sr. Supt. Marcelo Pintac, Chief Supt. Bienvenido Latag, police director for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said the raid was jointly conducted by Matanog PNP, police provincial mobile group and elements of the 37th Infantry Battalion.

The raiding team swooped down Tuesday morning on the marijuana plantations located on the slopes of mountains in the borders of Barangay Bayang and Sapad.

Latag said part of the uprooted marijuana plants were burned in the area while the rest were brought to Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) for proper disposition.

The same will be used as evidence against the plantation owners who, to date, remained unidentified.

Pintac said the owners probably had prior information about the raid that they harvested some of the plants on Monday night.

The area used to be a stronghold of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front until 2000 when then President Joseph Estrada ordered a massive military operations that led to the fall of MILF's Camp Abubakar.