Defense, Army chiefs favor ROTC revival

Both Defense Sec. Delfin Lorenzana and Army chief Lt. Gen. Eduardo Año on Thursday said it is high time to revive the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) for college students to partly address the trimming number of reservists.

In a radio interview, Lorenzana said the Armed Forces of the Philippines has been seeing a decline in their pool of reservists where they get reserve officers and enlisted personnel.

"Actually matagal nang iniisip yan ng Armed Forces, noon pa. Siguro mga ilang taon na, kasi napapansin namin na kumakaunti na yung ating reservists, kumakaunti na yung ating pool na pinagkukunan ng mga reserve officers at saka yung mga enlisted personnel," he said.

Lorenzana added reservists are also the first responders in the provinces during times of calamities and disasters.

"Yung mga reservist na yan, yung mga ino-organize na reservist ng Armed Forces sa mga probinsya, sila yung mga first responders sa mga calamities [at] sa mga sakuna... Wala na. Wala na tayong pool," Lorenzana said.

Año, for his part, said under the National Defense Act, citizens may be mobilized in times of need.

"So it is really important that all citizens of the country are well trained or at least trained by the military so that when the time comes that we need to mobilize the citizenry we are ready," he said.

NSTP

On Tuesday, presidential chief legal counsel Salvador Panelo said that among the topics discussed by President Rodrigo Duterte in their Cabinet meeting last Monday was pushing for a law making ROTC mandatory again for male and female college students. 

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

But according to Año, some universities don't present their students with a choice and automatically enroll them in NSTP subjects. 

"Kung minsan pagdating sa mga university [and] colleges, hindi na binibigay ng choice yung student, derecho na siya ng NSTP. Kaya yung ibang freshmen na willing to, they did not know na may choices pala," he said.

AFP on high morale

Meanwhile, Lorenzana said the AFP is on high morale because of the recent visits of Duterte in their military camps. 

Duterte also visited the AFP General Hospital on Tuesday. 

In line with his visit, Lorenzana said the AFP will soon create a unit tasked to focus on the pension and benefits of killed and injured soldiers while in the line of duty.

He added the unit will identify what benefits the family of the soldiers will receive, such as employment for their spouses and scholarship for their children. — Joseph Tristan Roxas and Jessica Bartolome/RSJ, GMA News