The Police Regional Office 10 (PRO-10) intensified its campaign against illegal mining in Misamis Oriental over the weekend, confiscating PH P112,000 worth of mineral ores in two separate operations conducted on October 25 and 26 in the municipality of Manticao, Daily Tribune reported.
Personnel from the Manticao Municipal Police Station discovered 44 sacks of mineral ores in the mountainous area of Barangay Upper Malubog, believed to have been sourced from Barangay Limonda in Opol- a known site of previous illegal mining operations.
Police said the first operation in Upper Malubog’s Barangay 5 yielded 20 sacks valued at PHP50,000, while the second operation in Barangay 4 recovered 24 sacks worth PHP62,000. The sacks were found abandoned and later brought to the Manticao Police Station for documentation before being turned over to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources–Mines and Geosciences Bureau (DENR–MGB) in Cagayan de Oro City for verification and proper disposition.
The weekend raids follow a major operation earlier this month in Barangay Limonda, Opol, where over 627 sacks of mineral ore amounting to PHP918,750 were seized. Police Maj. Teodoro Panganiban, chief of the Opol Municipal Police Station, said the operation was conducted after receiving information that illegal miners were preparing to transport the materials for processing.
The MGB Region 10 previously deployed drones to monitor illegal mining activities along the boundary of Misamis Oriental and Cagayan de Oro City, thus revealing ongoing large-scale extraction operations. A joint raid in August involving MGB, the Environmental Management Bureau, the National Bureau of Investigation, and the Philippine Army led to the arrest of one suspect and the confiscation of heavy equipment along the Iponan River system.
Authorities said investigations are ongoing to determine the full extent of the illegal mining operations and identify those involved, including a sitting barangay official reportedly linked to the activities.
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