PRESIDENT Paula-Mae Weekes has called out to duty 126 members of the Trinidad and Tobago Volunteer Defence Force.
They will take up duties from June 1 to August 31.
This was done to strengthen the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force capability towards the fulfilment of operational support to the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) in the current State of Emergency.
In a proclamation on Friday, President Paula Mae-Weekes stated that according to law, the President can call out such members if it deemed necessary.
The proclamation states, “Whereas section 238 (1) of the Defence Act, Chap. 14:01 provides inter alia, that the President may call out the Volunteer Defence Force or any portion of it for actual military service with their arms and ammunition, in aid of the civil power in any case in which a riot, disturbance of the peace or other emergency requiring such service occurs, or is, in the opinion of the President, anticipated as likely to occur, and in either case to be beyond the powers of the civil authorities to suppress, or to prevent, or deal with.”