Anti-terror Marine unit in Cotabato City has new commander

COTABATO CITY — The commandant of the Navy’s Philippine Marine Corps on Monday, March 10, installed a new commander of their battalion helping the Army and police secure all of the 37 barangays in Cotabato City, the regional capital of the Bangsamoro region.

Major Gen. Arturo Rojas, PMC commandant, personally officiated the assumption of Major Victor Donque as commanding officer of the Marine Battalion Landing Team-5, replacing Lt. Col. Lester Mark Baky, who held the post for 18 months.

The MBLT-5 is under the 1st Marine Brigade based in Camp Iranun in Barangay Tugaig in Barira, Maguindanao del Norte. Marine units in Cotabato City and the adjoining Sultan Mastura, Sultan Kudarat, Parang, Matanog, Barira and Buldon towns are under the operational control of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division.

Baky turned over the control of the MBLT-5 to Donque during a symbolic rite at the battalion’s command post in Barangay Rosary Heights 8 in Cotabato City, where he also received as special citation from the 6th ID for his extensive involvement in the division’s peacebuilding programs while at the helm of the unit.

The commander of the 6th ID, Major Gen. Donald Gumiran, and the director of the Police Regional Office-12, Brig. Gen. Romeo Juan Macapaz, separately told reporters that Baky had extensively supported the 6th ID and PRO-BAR’s peacekeeping and law-enforcement activities in Cotabato City.

The MBLT-5, while under Baky’s control, had also collected more than a hundred assault rifles, pistols, bolt-action sniper rifles and submachineguns from residents of Cotabato City and in nearby Datu Odin Sinsuat town that were surrendered by owners in support of the Small Arms and Light Weapons Management Program of the 6th ID and the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity.