President Rodrigo Duterte will push for the revival of the mandatory Reserved Officers Training Course (ROTC) for college students, mandatory Citizens’ Army Training (CAT) for high school students, Palace spokesperson Harry Roque said.
“We will look up to our neighbors like Singapore, South Korea, China and Japan because they are training their youth to become nation-builders, to become patriotic citizens and enjoining them to become military reservists so that when typhoons, earthquakes, tsunamis and national emergencies besiege their society, they immediately deploy their youthful citizens to rescue their elderly and their families,” Roque said.
ROTC was abolished in 2002 after an investigation showed that a University of Santo Tomas student was murdered after he exposed alleged corruption in the ROTC.
The President was disappointed on how the ROTC program was scrapped by the Congress after the death of two neophytes during a fraternity hazing.
He said scrapping the program was shortsighted when an investigation could have been conducted in the first place.
Duterte said those who will undergo ROTC training would be the ones who can guide and protect the civilians in case of violence and anarchy since they have the knowledge on handling firearms.
In 2002, ROTC was made optional and voluntary through Republic Act 9163 or the NSTP Act of 2001.
Last year, the President approved the filing of the Department of National Defense’s proposed bill reviving mandatory ROTC.
However, the bill has yet to be submitted to Congress, deliberated on by lawmakers, and passed as an amendment to the Republic Act No 7077 or the Citizen Armed Forces of the Philippines Reservist Act before it can be implemented.
“With the desired policy of President Duterte to return these reformed mandatory ROTC and military reservist training for the Filipino youth, we will be able to spread and inculcate nationalism faster and prepare an entire youthful generation of this country towards nation-building,” Roque said.
