Thursday, July 06, 2006
University alumni try to stop abolition of training course
A GROUP of Central Philippine University (CPU) graduates want to stop the permanent abolition of the Reserved Officer Training Course (ROTC).
The CPU-ROTC is said to be the topnotch unit during evaluations.
The former ROTC officers and cadets said they will file a letter of consideration to CPU President Juanito Acanto.
Assistant City Prosecutor Jeremy Bionat, alumni coordinator of the Ad-Hoc Committee for the revival of CPU-ROTC, stated in a press release that they are doing their best to revive the ROTC in their university after the school administration decided to scrap it for school year 2006 to 2007.
During enrollment, there were only 48 freshmen students who signified their intention to undergo ROTC as one of their National Service Training Program components. The other two, which students are asked to choose from, are the Civic Welfare Training Service and Literacy Training Service under Republic Act 9163.
There should be at least 350 enrollees in the course, the minimum number for a school to offer ROTC.
During the school opening, Acanto wrote Lieutenant Colonel Romeo Ucag, commanding officer of 604 Community Defense Center in Iloilo, informing him that CPU is no longer offering ROTC as a NSTP component because they failed to reach the minimum number of enrollees.
Bionat and fellow alumnus, lawyer Victor Decina, called for the administration to observe "academic freedom."
They gathered at least 378 signatures from freshmen students, who recently signified to enroll in ROTC.
Based on the signatories, 90 percent or 378 are students taking up Nursing.
Bionat added that the signature campaign they conducted was done in guerilla type because the ROTC office in the campus has been padlocked by the administration.
"We will seek reconsideration," Bionat said during the conference. (JDB)
(July 6, 2006 issue)
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