The Philippine Marines is establishing its first detachment
in Zamboanga City that will be responsible to monitor the activities of lawless
elements in the region.
The Department of National Defense (DND) has held a
groundbreaking ceremony in Zamboanga for the first fleet detachment of the Philippine
Marines in Barangay Rio Hondo.
Rio Hondo was among the hard-hit Barangays during the
encounter between the government troops and Misuari faction of the Moro
National Liberation Front (MNLF) in the 2013 Zamboanga siege.
Defense Undersecretary Jesus Millan says the main purpose of
the facility is to prevent the possible attacks by lawless elements and rampant
illegal operations such as smuggling.
This would also safeguard the coastline areas within the
city and the nearby towns that are used as entry points to criminals.
“This facility will help a lot in ensuring the security of
the community as well as the city of Zamboanga. It will facilitate responses,
our security forces will be stationed here especially the Marines will be using
this as their headquarters” said usec Millan.
The facility is located with 9,000 square meters of land,
funded with about PHP70 million pesos. It will have six units of guard towers, an administration
building, armory, motor pool and helipad.
Usec Millan said that establishing such detachment was never easy.
“What is important now is that we were able to realize this after a very tedious process. From the time that we made a drawing, the time we consulted everybody and from the time we acquired this real property and the allocation of proper sources”
WestMinCom commander Lt. General Mayoralgo Dela Cruz
expressed gratitude for the establishment of the detachment in the area.
“Personally I am very happy that the AFP is able to acquire
this property because we are strengthening our defenses in the city.
Local officials in Zamboanga are thankful of the facility
which is in response to the post-needs assessment conducted after the siege.
No comments:
Post a Comment