FILIPINO youths have slammed the National Government’s call for the urgent passage of the proposed Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) Act.
If passed into a law, the measure paves the way for mandatory basic military and civic training for all students enrolled in colleges and universities across the country.
"While state universities and colleges face a collective P14.4 billion budget cut and more face budget deficits, it is insulting that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is more willing to push for the passage of a P61.2-billion-worth Mandatory ROTC program that will further burden students, faculty and administrators themselves who already have less classrooms than needed,” youth political group Kabataan Partylist first nominee and lawyer Renee Co said in an earlier statement to the media.
While the P61.2 billion is only a projected cost for the implementation of mandatory ROTC, the youth political group maintained that the budget is already equivalent for the funding of 24,480 classrooms to improve the country’s quality of education.
“Marcos Jr. is willing to commit more than four times the budget needed by State Colleges and Universities (SUCs) with cuts for a program that abused and killed students in the past," Co added.
In 2002, lawmakers abolished the mandatory ROTC after the murder of ROTC cadet Mark Welson Chua by alleged senior ROTC officers in 2001.
Chua, a second-year student at the University of Sto. Tomas (UST) in the capital Manila, exposed the alleged corruption practices in the ROTC system in their university.
Aside from alleged corruption in ROTC, the military training was also reeked with issues of abuse, the youth groups said.
"The conviction of the 10 UST fraternity members on October 1, 2024 over the hazing killing of their own brother, Atio Castillo III, should give pause to President Marcos Jr… and others who are so eager to push for the return of Mandatory ROTC, which was banned because of the hazing killing of Mark Chua,” progressive student group Spark-Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan national coordinator John Lazaro told SunStar Philippines.
“Does President Marcos Jr. really want to strengthen the culture of hazing at a time when we are again reminded of the violence of hazing?" Lazaro asked.
Senate Majority Leader Francis Tolentino earlier announced that the lawmakers will resume the discussion of the ROTC bill in November this year.
Lawmakers are keen on reviving the mandatory ROTC to instill nationalism, discipline, and leadership training, along with having ready reserve forces for disaster response and relief operations as the Philippines is situated in the “Pacific Ring of Fire,” which makes the country prone to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, and being in the typhoon belt in the Pacific, where an average of 20 typhoons hit the county every year.
"With the President's go signal, the ROTC bill has been moved to Tier 1 from Tier 2 in the list of the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac) - making it a top priority. So, when the session resumes, we expect to discuss it right away," Tolentino said in September 2024.
To make the law “more holistic and relevant to current challenges,” the Senate official said the ROTC program “could integrate subjects on climate change and environmental stewardship, disaster preparedness, and civics.”
However, a survey by the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (Ceap) in April 2023 alone showed that 53 percent of the respondents covering 20,461 senior high school and first year undergraduate college students raised opposition to the revival of the mandatory ROTC in the country. (Ronald O. Reyes/SunStar Philippines)