MANILA, Philippines—A Marine battalion meant originally for anti-terror duty in Sulu province had been sent to Metro Manila instead to reinforce soldiers and policemen already deployed to enforce President Rodrigo Duterte’s enhanced community quarantine against the coronavirus pandemic.
The 12th Marine Battalion would be added to members of the Naval Task Group-National Capital Region already manning checkpoints in the provinces of Rizal, Cavite and Laguna and the cities of Marikina and Muntinlupa, according to Maria Christina Roxas, acting naval public affairs director, in a statement on Wednesday (March 25).
The Marine battalion was originally assigned to Sulu, a terrorist hotbed, after finishing a retraining program by the end of March.
The military and police have been tapped to man border checkpoints in Luzon to prevent people from going out in the streets in the hope that COVID-19 transmission, which had defied quarantine in other countries and continued to spread despite lockdowns abroad, would be stopped.