The proposed mandatory Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program in schools will benefit the youth if implemented correctly, said a Catholic bishop.
“The push for the ROTC program would be good if they are implemented well,” said Bishop Oscar Jaime Florencio of the Military Ordinariate of the Philippines in a Radio Veritas 846 interview.
The prelate said he is not entirely against the revival of ROTC, saying the values that are enshrined in the program “could go down to the core of our young people.”
Bishop Florencio made the statement amid the ongoing push in the Senate for the return of the ROTC program in tertiary and vocational schools.
Senate Bill 387 seeks the institutionalization and administration of the Basic ROTC Program for students enrolled in Grades 11 and 12.
The program aims to provide basic military training to “motivate, train, organize, and utilize” students for national defense preparedness and 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.
In the House of Representatives, House Bill No. 6468 authored by House Speaker Martin G. Romualdez was already approved by the committee on technical and higher education.
Under the proposed measure, the government would “enhance the capacity of its citizens to mobilize and perform their constitutional duty to render personal military or civil service to the [country] in times of calamities and disasters, national or local emergencies, rebellion, invasion or war” through the training program.
The ROTC requirement was abolished in 2002 after Republic Act 9163 established the National Service Training Program.
Moves to abolish the compulsory military training program were prompted by the murder of a private university student who spoke out on corruption within the ROTC system involving students paying off military training officers to skip the requirement.
In his State of the Nation Address last year, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. included the ROTC Program in his 19-point priority agenda.
