EARLIER this morning, Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa attempted to defend his backing of the mandatory ROTC program by using the government’s own incompetence in defending the country’s sovereignty. He claims that young netizens want to go to war with China but condemn the implementation of the program.
Firstly, the youth is clamoring for action in the first place because the government does not accomplish its basic functions and protect the country’s sovereignty. This clamor is not driven in the interest of waging war but is driven with the rightful assertion of our own rights in our motherland.
Secondly, the youth are not to be treated as some kind of first line of defense. The senator refuses to see that the current forces that the country does have are waging a war in their own land and not defending the country as they should be.
It must be remembered that our military men are in Mindanao, enforcing Martial Law and abusing our indigenous peoples.
The misdirection of the current reserves does not, in any way, justify the implementation of the program.
Lastly, to say that ROTC would instill discipline and patriotism is a tired and worn assumption, especially with the Duterte administration upholding the removal of Filipino and Panitikan as required subjects in college.
The government is, in no way, a trustworthy authority when it comes to patriotism. The program it pushes for cannot hope to instill patriotism when the President himself remains spineless and unwilling to protect his fishermen stranded in sea.
The National Union of Students of the Philippines continues to stand firm against mandatory ROTC and fight for the assertion of our national sovereignty.