Child rights group Salinlahi appealed to legislators this week not to pass a law that will require children to undergo military training.
“Contrary to the claims that [mandatory Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC)] will enhance children’s physical health and instill discipline among them, Salinlahi believes that the program will only violate the rights of Filipino children and will increase their vulnerabilities to abuses and violence,” said the group’s spokesperson Vinzar Samiana.
Samiana said the revival of mandatory ROTC in senior high school will “clearly violate the provisions” of Republic Act 7610 that promote children as zones of peace and prohibits the recruitment of children to state armed forces as well as the use of schools for military purposes.
“The decrease in physical activity among adolescents and the supposed lack of discipline among children and youth are not enough reasons to revive mandatory ROTC that has been long condemned over allegations of abuses and corruption,” said Samiana.
The child rights group said there are “more pressing issues” concerning Filipino students that should be addressed by the government, such as the safe reopening of schools.
Last month, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian revealed that 69 percent of Filipinos agree to the proposed implementation of the ROTC Program in senior high school.
The senator, who commissioned a Pulse Asia survey on the issue, said that with 1,200 respondents, more than 70 percent in the National Capital Region (71 percent) and the Visayas (78 percent) support mandatory ROTC in senior high school while more than 60 percent in Balance Luzon (67 percent) and Mindanao (64 percent) also say they support the proposal.
In his State of the Nation Address, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. included the ROTC Program in his 19-point priority agenda.
Gatchalian’s Senate Bill 387 seeks the institutionalization and administration of the Basic ROTC Program for students enrolled in Grades 11 and 12.
The Basic ROTC Program will include basic military training that aims to motivate, train, organize and utilize students for national defense preparedness or civil-military operations.
The bill provides, however, that no student below the age of 18 shall take direct part in hostilities. He filed a similar bill in the 18th Congress.
