Marawi heroes undergo training

MANILA, Philippines — Selected Army officers and enlisted men – mostly veterans of the liberation of Marawi – have undergone a 15-day training in dealing with trauma, in cooperation with Britain’s Royal Marines.

Army spokesman Lt. Col. Ramon Zagala said the conduct of the Trauma Risk Management Training (TRiM) was in line with the Memorandum of Agreement with the United Kingdom on joint training and exchange of trainees and instructors and information. He did not say how many Filipino soldiers joined the training program.

“This cooperation between the Philippines and the United Kingdom aims to empower our soldiers to help fellow soldiers in need. This will benefit those who face personal challenges after a conflict so they would be able to return to their normal lives,” Zagala said.

“The Philippine Army extended an invitation to the British Attaché to the Philippines, Col. Mike Page, to train Army troops on operational stress management after the Marawi siege experience,” Zagala said.

The training, he added, aims to enable Army troops to apply peer-delivered combat stress assessment to help in the early identification of soldiers at risk of combat trauma.

The trainees came from the Army Light Reaction Regiment (LRR), First Scout Ranger Regiment (FSRR), Special Forces Regiment (SFR Airbone), 1st Infantry “Tabak” Division, the 6th Infantry Division and the 11th Infantry Division.

Except for the 11th Infantry Division, the units comprised the armed forces deployed in Marawi two years ago to flush out Islamic State-inspired Maute terrorists out to establish a caliphate.

The 11th Infantry Division – assigned in Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi – is tasked mainly to go after Abu Sayyaf bandits.

TRiM is a psychological support tool for Operation Stress management of the British Royal Marines. Aside from traumatic battle experience, other causes of psychological disorder among soldiers are frequent deployment, death of comrade, threat of injury and unpleasant assignments, among others.