TUGUEGARAO CITY, Cagayan, Philippines — Joint operatives of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the Kalinga Police Provincial Office (PPO) confiscated a total of P5.5 million worth of marijuana plants in separate operations in this region last week, police reported Monday.

Senior Superintendent Ernesto Gaab, Kalinga police director, said lawmen first seized 20 bricks of dried marijuana leaves in Sitio Foyfoyan, Barangay Ambato-Legleg, Tinglayan town.

Gaab said the seized marijuana bricks, priced at P500,000, were abandoned by still unidentified drug dealers riding on tandem on a motorcycle to avoid pursuit when they ran through a checkpoint.

In a separate incident, PDEA agents uprooted around 25,000 fully-grown marijuana plants in large plantations in the outskirts of Sitio Talaca, Barangay Agbannawag, Tabuk City.