Marine battalion to be retrained as unit attached to Navy’s Fleet Marine Ready Force

July 3, 2020

A marine battalion deployed in Western Mindanao for almost 10 years will be retrained to become the first Marine Amphibious Ready Unit attached to the Fleet-Marine Ready Force of the Philippine Navy.

Lt. Commander Maria Christina Roxas, acting Philippine Navy Public Affairs director, said  members of the 9th Marine Battalion (9MBn) that were transported by BRP Bacolod City (LS550) arrived at Capt. Salvo Pier in Sangley Point on Thursday.

Roxas said the 9MBn, under the command of Lt. Col. Mark Anthony Arabe, have been deployed in Tawi-Tawi, Sulu and Zamboanga City under the Western Mindanao Command’s area of responsibility since 2010.

“The arrival ceremony presided by the Navy chief, Vice Adm. Giovanni Carlo Bacordo, was conducted in accordance with the 'new normal' scheme adhering to health and biosafety protocols,” she said.

Roxas said in his remarks, Bacordo recognized the successful deployment of 9th Marine Battalion as testament and proof to the "capability and competence of our Marines to respond to emerging security challenges".

To sustain these accomplishments, "it needs to level up to continue to be a proficient Marine Operating Force... [as] every marine battalion's job is about to get harder... due to the rapidly changing, complex, simultaneous and overlapping security challenges", Bacordo said.

Roxas said Major Gen. Nathaniel Casem, the Philippine Marine Corps (PMC) commandant, placed the 9MBn to non-operational status for the retraining  as they are being envisioned “as the first Marine Amphibious Ready Unit to be attached to the Fleet-Marine Ready Force".

Among the notable accomplishments of this battalion were the neutralization of a number of Abu Sayyaf members, interception of smuggled lumbers, illegal drugs, human trafficking victims and illegal immigrants, and rescue of more than a hundred passengers and crew of ill-fated vessel in Tawi-Tawi, she added. Robina Asido/DMS