MAYOR Maria Isabelle Climaco-Salazar on Monday, June 3, welcomed the arrival of the Army’s 74th Infantry Battalion (IB) to serve as internal security forces of Zamboanga City.

This, as Salazar reiterated her unyielding support to the security sector in line with her flagship program on security, health and education or SHE.

The Army’s 74th IB, which came from Basilan province, has replaced the 11th IB.

Salazar has expressed her gratitude to the Army’s 11th IB for all their efforts in securing this city in collaboration with the police and other friendly forces since its deployment here in 2016.

Colonel Leonel Nicolas, Joint Task Force Zamboanga commander, said the 11th IB will return to its original unit under the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division based in Negros.

Despite the transition, Nicolas assured the people of this city that “there will be no vacuum in the deployment.”

“We don’t have anything to worry, we can protect the people of Zamboanga and all its premises, so we can sleep soundly at night,” he said. (Bong Garcia/SunStar Philippines)