Marine battalion deployed to Sulu

A newly retrained Marine battalion will be deployed to Sulu, a hotbed of Islamist militants.

Navy spokesperson Col. Edgard Arevalo on Tuesday said the 1st Marine Battalion Landing Team-1 (MBLT-1), composed of about 500 troops, was sent off on Monday in a ceremony at Sangley Point in Cavite City.

Vice Adm. Caesar Taccad, the Navy chief, joined the sendoff ceremonies.

Headed by Col. Noel D. Beleran, MBLT-1 just finished retraining before the deployment and will replace the MBLT-2, which will undergo retraining.

“This is part of a regular retraining process. We need to retrain, to refresh them, their observations with regard to the theories,” Arevalo said.

Sulu is one of the lairs of the terrorist group Abu Sayyaf, which is holding several local and foreign hostages.

There are currently eight battalions deployed in Sulu—five from Army and three from Marines—tasked to go after Abu Sayyaf. RC