DND, AFP, DepEd want grievance panel in revived mandatory ROTC

A grievance committee that will handle allegations of hazing, abuse, and corruption has been proposed by the inter-agency committee looking into the revival of the mandatory Reserve Officer's Training Corps program.

The committee includes the Department of National Defense, the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Department of Education.

Brig. Gen. Rolando Rodil, AFP Reserve Command commander, said the agencies had submitted to the Senate Committee on Education, Arts, and Culture the draft of the guidelines on addressing the issues in connection with the ROTC.

At a Senate hearing, Rodil said the draft guidelines formulated by the DND-AFP and DepEd technical working group required that a complaint be submitted in writing, and signed by the complainant under oath.

The complainant may be the aggrieved party, parent, or guardian.

Rodil said anonymous complaints should not be scrapped immediately and should be evaluated and investigated if there was sufficient basis.

President Rodrigo Duterte has repeatedly expressed his desire for the revival of ROTC for students in Grade 11 and 12. 

In February, the House of Representatives approved on second reading a bill making ROTC mandatory for senior high school students.

The National Service Training Program law, which made ROTC optional, was enacted into law in 2001 in the aftermath of the murder of ROTC cadet Mark Welson Chua of University of Santo Tomas (UST) in March of the same year.

Chua, then an engineering student, was killed by his fellow cadet officers after exposing corruption within ROTC ranks to UST's official student publication, The Varsitarian.

Worse, Chua's body was found floating in Pasig River, his head wrapped with a packaging tape, hands tied with shoestring and his legs bound by a packaging tape.

Only two of Chua's killers, Arnulfo Aparri and Eduardo Tabrilla, have been convicted. Two others, Paul Tan and Michael Rainard Manangbao, remain at large. —NB, GMA News