Men and officers of the 19th Infantry Battalion prepare to board the military air transport that will take them to Cotabato on rotational assignment. Photographed by Lottie Salarda, InterAksyon.
Philippine Army Corporal Jasper Buenaventura bid goodbye on Sunday to his three-year-old daughter Kyle and his wife at the DZR Airport as he joined the rest of his 400-strong comrades of the 8th Infantry Division's 19th Infantry Battalion leaving for reassignment to Cotabato to replace the 45th IB, which is to being rotated to Central Luzon.
(Below) Three-year-old Kyle Buenaventura and her mother on a sunny Sunday morning, sending Corporal Jasper Buenaventura off at Tacloban's DZR Airport. Photographed by Lottie Salarda, InterAksyon.
According to 19th IB Commanding officer Col. Roberto Sarmiento, they received the orders from headquarters for the deployment just last week. The mission is to provide peace and security in Cotabato Province and also to support the 6th Infantry Battalion in the area.
"I am bringing with me a 400-strong contingent of commandos with knowledge, skill and training in both combat and non-combat operations," said Sarmiento, who assumed his post as a Commanding Officer just this April.
According to 802nd Brigade Commanding Officer Col. Francisco Mendoza, he still has enough men to secure their area of responsibility, as the departing commandos will be replaced by incoming new blood and other soldiers.
"So far, the province of Leyte is already manageable against threats from the enemy," Mendoza told InterAksyon.
The sendoff was led by 8th Infantry Division Assistant Division Commander Cesar Idio at the DZR Airport in Tacloban City.
The Area of Responsibility of the 8th Infantry Division, also known as The STORM TROOPERS Division, headquartered at Catbalogan City, covers the entire Eastern Visayas (the islands of Samar, Leyte and Biliran), comprised of six provinces, four cities, 139 municipalities and 4,421 barangays or roughly 10 percent of the total barangays nationwide spread out over a land area of 21,431.7 square kilometers, which represents 7.2% of the country's total land area.
http://interaksyon.com/article/128382/army-19th-ib-commandos-dispatched-on-rotation-to-cotabato
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