100 senior high school to be part of 2-year ROTC pilot implementation

At least 100 senior high schools all over the country will now be part of the two-year pilot implementation of the proposed Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program which will start this school year.

“It has not just taken off last semester but we plan to implement that in Grades 11 and 12 this coming school year,” Brig. Gen. Rolando Rodil, AFP Reserve Command commander, said during the hearing of the committee on education, arts, and culture chaired by Senator Sherwin Gatchalian.

Since the Congress is yet to pass the bill for the mandatory ROTC, the Department of Education and Department of National Defense-Armed Forces of the Philippines will call the pilot project as Advanced Citizen Training Program (ACTP).

“We have identified 100 senior high schools, all public, to be part of the pilot implementation for this ACTP,” said Rodil.

“It is nationwide, covers all regions except, as agreed upon, ARMM (Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao) because at that time when we were formulating it, the Marawi crisis was ensuing,  not for any other reason,” he added.

He said they have come up with a draft memorandum of agreement for the pilot implementation signed by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and Education Secretary Leonor Briones.

“We have formulated a joint curriculum or program of instruction for the two years of the pilot implementation in Grades 11 and 12,” Rodil said.

He said the salient features of the modules that will be covered in the curriculum are: 

• values education and  character building
• nationalism and patriotism
• leadership skills
• civic consciousness and community involvement
• disaster preparedness
• survival and life skills
• basic military skills

Gatchalian, in an interview after the hearing, said the grievance committee will be part of the ACTP to address concerns on hazing, abuse, and corruption. 

He said the DND-AFP and DepEd can implement the ACTP even without a law because it will be considered as part of the curriculum. —LDF, GMA News