Palace wants able bodied Filipinos, including female, to take ROTC

June 4, 2019

The Philippines should follow other countries where all "able bodied" citizens undertake compulsary military training, Malacanang said on Tuesday.

In a press briefing, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo disagreed with the critics of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps ( ROTC) it is a form of fostering blind obedience and discourage critical thinking among students.

"I don't think so, because when I was in college, I underwent Reserve Officers' Training Corps. You’re thought there how to handle firearms, how to have discipline; you are lectured on many things even on laws, even on history," he said.

President Rodrigo Duterte has certified as urgent the passage of the bill, mandating the institutionalization, development training, organization and administration of basic ROTC in Grades 11 and 12 in public and private education institutions.

He communicated his certification to the Senate and House leadership on June 3.

However, the Senate has said that it lacks time to pass the bill.

"If it lacks time. There is another new Senate coming up so I don't think that's a problem," Panelo said.

He underscored the importance of institutionalizing ROTC, citing that in other countries, similar activity is mandatory.

"You know, in other countries, it's mandatory...I share the view that all citizens, able bodied citizens of the Philippines, male...even female, should be required to have compulsary military training for our own security. When the time comes, so that...we all know. That's for all of us," said Panelo, also chief presidential legal counsel.

He noted that currently the youth's concentration is more on technologies.

"It seems that they already lack, there's no more discipline," he added.

In certifying the necessity of immediately enacting the ROTC bill, Duterte said its passage would "invigorate their (youth) sense of nationalism and patriotism necessary in defending the State and to further promote their vital role in nation-building." Celerina Monte/DMS