Two more sacks found in Taal Lake – PCG

Authorities recover two more sacks from Taal Lake on Thursday afternoon, July 11, 2025. — Photo from the Philippine Coast Guard

LAUREL, Batangas, Philippines — Two more sacks were found at the bottom of the Taal Lake on Friday afternoon, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) announced.

The first sack was found 200 meters away from the shoreline of this town and 70 feet deep in the lake, while the second sack was found 100 meters away from the shoreline and 50 feet deep in the lake, according to PCG Southern Tagalog Commander Commo. Geronimo Tuvilla.

What did the sacks contain? Tuvilla said he could not provide this information, stressing that the bags were not opened in order to keep them preserved.

“The bags were tattered,” Tuvilla noted in an interview with reporters. “Visibility was almost only for a meter, so they were feeling it out. But once they see the object that’s buried there, it may disintegrate or be tattered.”

“We covered it in a fine mesh net so that, once we ascended, it wouldn’t tear apart. We handled it very carefully,” he added.

How did the PCG determine the search area? Tuvilla said they were basing it on information from whistleblower Julie Patidongan, also known by the alias “Totoy,” who alleged that the bodies of 34 missing cockfighting aficionados or sabungeros were burned, tied into sacks and dumped into Taal Lake.

“Knowing that this is a very big area to search, they got the information from the witness to really determine where, so that’s the approximate area that was given, so that’s where we started,” the PCG Southern Tagalog commander explained.

READ: DOJ: Possible human bones near Taal Lake amid search for sabungeros

These discoveries followed the retrieval of a sack from Taal Lake on Thursday afternoon, which contained what was believed to be burned human bones, according to the Department of Justice.

Tuvilla detailed that the sack recovered on Thursday was found around 10 meters away from the shoreline and at a shallow depth.

According to the PCG Southern Tagalog commander, the bags were turned over to crime scene operatives for forensic examination. /das