Marines stick to their guns in bid for ‘independence’

From Business Mirror (Apr 2): Marines stick to their guns in bid for ‘independence’ 

The Philippine Marines has not given up on its bid of being transformed into a separate fighting force of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), and cut its umbilical cord from the Philippine Navy, which is its mother unit, although the idea had been shot down earlier by Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana.

“Every Marine personnel is in favor, however…whatever is its outcome, we will always obey the chain of command,” said Marine Commandant Maj. Gen. Alvin Parreño on Monday, adding the “separation” has no other intention, but to further improve the Marines as a unit.

“This is the clamor of every Marine deployed in many areas, and I, as their representative, it is my duty to express the sentiment of men under me. Lest, I will be remiss of my duty, in my obligation as their representative in their looking out for the welfare of the men and for the accomplishment of their mission,” the Marine commandant said.

The idea to detach the Marines from the Navy and count it as a separate armed service in the AFP, which is being supported and pushed by the current leadership of the Marines, had originated in the House of Representatives through Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez, a reserve Marine colonel.

While Parreño said that President Duterte, Lorenzana and the military leadership were addressing the “issues and concerns” of the Marines, they still have some questions on matters related to budgetary requirement.

“Our first concern is personnel and equipment that are needed in order to cope with the prevailing situation and the threats that may arise… those are our first concern because the people in the front line are in need of those equipment,” he said.

“We do not intend to compete with the Philippine Army, Philippine Air Force and Navy. We just want our troops, our table of organization to be filled up. The other branch of service, they may have other things, missions to do, but we also believe that we have some task to perform also in operations, especially in terms of, you know, we have built this expertise, 67 years of experience in amphibious operation and then the culture that we have as members of Philippine Marine Corps, and the doctrine is very important to all of us,” Parreño added.

Lorenzana is opposed to the separation of the Marines from the Navy, saying the Marines is basically a ground force and, as such, making it a separate service “doing the same functions as the Army will mean there will be two ground forces in the country.”

“The Philippine Marine Corps claims that they have particular skills like ship-to-shore operations. The Philippine Army could easily learn these skills,” he said.

“The Marines are expeditionary forces. In other countries like the US, their Marines, upon which we patterned ours, are utilized for overseas deployment. That is also true with the Royal Marines of the UK. Both units are invasion forces embedded with their navies. The Philippines, on the other hand, will not be invading foreign shores anytime soon or ever,” he added.

Lorenzana also said that, when the Marines was created in 1950 by an AFP general headquarters order, “it was designed as a light, hard striking force to pursue, pirates and smugglers. It was originally part of the Philippine Naval Patrol, which was the forerunner of the Philippine Fleet.”

He added: In short, “The Philippine Marines was created as an adjunct of the Philippine Navy and it was envisioned as a small force only.”

Parreño assured that, while the Marines may become a separate branch of service, it will see to it that the “umbilical cord is always there.”

“We are amphibious in nature, we will be coming from the sea. We know that the sea is not an obstacle, but is a [there] maneuver space for us. So, it’s a different perception on our part when we are on the sea, and we will develop some more in terms of doctrine, culture and many other things that pertains to the Philippine Marine Corps,” Parreño said.

https://businessmirror.com.ph/marines-stick-to-their-guns-in-bid-for-independence/