DEFENSE Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. and several senators affirmed support for passage of an enabling bill reinstituting the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) at the tertiary level, even as senators also heard of the huge administrative and mobilization challenge such a program would entail.
This, as Secretary Galvez said the Department of National Defense (DND) strongly supports the reinstitution of the ROTC program as a mandatory component in all public and private tertiary education institutions and in technical-vocational institutions.
At the public hearing of the Higher, Technical and Vocational Education Subcommittee on several bills requiring higher education students to undergo ROTC, Galvez said reviving the mandatory ROTC program will further “motivate, train, organize and mobilize” the students for national defense preparedness, including disaster preparedness and capacity building for risk-related situations.
“We (in the DND) will give the ROTC program premium officers who will ensure that the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) will put the best among the qualified and we will professionalize the handling of the ROTC,” he added.
Earlier, concern was raised over the possible manpower crunch arising from pulling out AFP officers from regular duties to help schools conduct the ROTC.
Senator Ronald M. Dela Rosa, presiding at the hearing, allayed fears that the renewed ROTC program would focus only on militarism ideology. “The ROTC program is not wholly dedicated to militaristic policies. There will also be disaster preparedness and response, moral values, personal discipline, adherence to the Constitution and respect for human rights, among others. All of these will be included in the ROTC program, not only militarism,” Dela Rosa said.
Sen. Francis Tolentino agreed with the suggestion that the country’s basic education system needs some rectifications, but stressed that it should not affect proposals to reinstate the mandatory ROTC.
According to Tolentino, having a good education is not a requirement for military training, but it can go hand in hand. “It (basic education) is not a requirement to love your country. It is not required that you have a high grade in algebra or even in basic English. To love your country should be inherent as a Filipino,” said the senator.
Senators heard from higher education authorities what an ROTC restoration entails. Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairperson Prospero De Vera presented to them findings of the commission’s analysis on the proposed reinstatement of the mandatory ROTC.
De Vera raised the issue of administrative requirements of expanding the mandatory ROTC to thousands of 1st year and 2nd year tertiary students in the 2,424 higher education institutions in the Philippines. He also cited the need for a “better curriculum” to better implement the program and maximize the country’s existing resources.
For his part, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian allayed student groups’ apprehensions that the education crisis in the Philippines will affect the ROTC program, saying these programs are mutually exclusive.
Gatchalian clarified that the ROTC program is “not meant”, to train students to become full-time soldiers. “What we envisioned here is to provide basic training to college students, meaning these students have already progressed from basic education to higher education. So they will have the mental wherewithal to be trained with basic ROTC training.”
Senator Robin Padilla said military training ensures the country’s preparedness for any threat or eventuality, recalling that the Philippines has been in war many times, noting that “thus, it is vital to prepare the youth to make sure the Philippines is not conquered.”
“My suggestion is, let our youth be prepared for anything that may come because historically we have not quite rested from war. We may have had years of peace, but the threat is still there,” Padilla said in Filipino.