After Sarangani quake, youth group pushes for revival of mandatory ROTC

A pro-government youth group on Saturday urged Congress to expedite the passage of a measure that would bring back the mandatory Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) in the country.

“We are supporting the President’s plan to restore the mandatory ROTC and we are urging Congress to pass it into law, hopefully this May, upon the resumption of session,” Duterte Youth Chairman Ronald Cardema said in a forum held in Quezon City.

“It’s an urgent measure, certified by the President. The President wants this in our country, he wants to train the Filipino youth in military, in preparation for earthquakes, calamities, for future wars. We need to train the youth now,” he added.

President Rodrigo Duterte earlier reiterated his plan to revive the ROTC, saying that the scrapping of the program in 2002 was “short-sighted.”

Speaking before young athletes, Duterte underscored the need for civilians to “sacrifice for the country” when needed.

Meanwhile, Cardema cited the recent 7.2-magnitude earthquake which struck off Sarangani, Davao Occidental early Saturday, as an example why the Filipino youth needs to undergo the mandatory military training.

Through the ROTC, the youth could be tapped to help in responding to such incident, he said.

“This morning Davao experienced a 7.2 earthquake, ang lakas noon. Every week, earthquakes are happening in our country, powerful earthquakes from Ilocos Norte, Surigao, from Batangas to Leyte…So we need to train our youth in preparation for these, these calamities and disasters,” Cardema said, who is also a former ROTC Corps Commander at University of the Philippines – Diliman.

“We admire countries like Singapore, South Korea, our Southeast Asian neighbors dahil ang gaganda ng societies nila. Very productive and nationalistic. They’ve done this through military training, by training their youth to become reservists, to become nation builders in their country,” he added.

Cardema emphasized that with a population of over 100 million, the Philippines could not rely solely on government personnel for help when powerful earthquakes and other calamities happen.

“In the Philippines, we have over 100 million population but we only have more than 100,000 soldiers who will act as our defender, as our responders during calamities. So, napaka-laki ng human resource ng bansa natin, napaka-daming nakatunganga lang, naghahantay ng susunod na bagyo, na susunod na earthquake, na susunod na giyera sa Facebook feeds, nandoon lang yung mga Pilipino,” he said.

“So we need to train them, it is the duty of the country, of the government, of the state, to train its citizens in preparation for war, earthquakes, and other disasters. It is the duty of our government to train the youth on how to defend, on how to have skills in acting when an earthquake or war comes to our land,” he added.

Enacted in 2002, under the administration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Republic Act (RA) 9163, otherwise known as the National Service Training Program (NSTP) Act, has made the ROTC as “optional and voluntary.”

The ROTC was then made one of three components of the National Service Training Program. The two other components are the Literacy Training Services, and the Civil Welfare Training Service.

Duterte wanted the ROTC to be mandatory for students in Grades 11 and 12, or senior high school, which he reportedly announced after a Cabinet meeting in February.

Revival of the program will require an amendment to Republic Act No. 7077, or the “Citizen Armed Forces or Armed Forces of the Philippines Reservist Act.”

There are at least eight pending measures in line with the revival of ROTC at the House of Representatives. — MDM, GMA News