More women joining Marines

MANILA, Philippines - The brotherhood of the few and the proud will welcome more feisty, brave women into its fold, according to Maj. Gen. Juancho Sabban, chief of the elite Marine Corps.

Sabban and other Marine officers visited The STAR yesterday as part of celebrations marking the 59th anniversary of the Marines.

Sabban, who used to head the Joint Task Force Comet in Jolo, said women have proved they are no less a soldier than their male counterparts on the battle frontlines, particularly in Mindanao.

“Women in the Marine Corps have proven they are brave and effective in the battlefield. They can be platoon leaders who lead men in the field,” Sabban said in an interview.

The program to enlist women in the force started in June this year, with six female recruits as pioneers. Today, they are training 33 female recruits at the basic school in Cavite to become marine privates.

Like their male comrades, the women undergo rigid training like backbreaking physical exercises and tedious classroom work for six months before graduating and being deployed to the field.

“There is a little adjustment in the level of difficulty in training, maybe by one percent. They are also required to have their heads shaved,” he said, saying the move is gender equality at play in the military organization.

But when it comes to toilets and quarters, the women are separated from the men.

Sabban said that while the entry of women into the corps is not new because there had been officers who volunteered to join, the recruitment of females as enlisted personnel started only this year, under Republic Act 7192 otherwise known as the Women in Development and Nation Building Act.

Once they become full-fledged marines, the women recruits will be deployed to combat assignments just like the males. They would conduct patrols and fight internal security threats, such as the Abu Sayyaf bandit group.

He added that there are several female marine officers who command their armor units, which led to the future deployment of women combatants in their infantry units.