Norberto Gonzales welcomes Sara Duterte's proposal on mandatory military service

Former Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales on Thursday welcomed Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte's proposal for a mandatory military service program for 18-year-olds.

Gonzales, a presidential aspirant from the Partido Demokratiko Sosyalista ng Pilipinas, believes the proposal will help increase the number of Army reservists.

"This proposal also favors the implementation of the long-delayed constitutional requirement to convert the Philippine Armed Forces into a fully functioning Citizen Army," he said.

Gonzales also said the proposed military service program "will provide the nation the size and quality of manpower it needs to face or combat the full range of national security threats and similar emergencies."

On Wednesday, Duterte said if elected, she will urge Congress to pass a measure that will "make military service mandatory for all 18-year-olds," male and female, in the country.

On Twitter, activist Walden Bello said Duterte’s “pledge to use the OVP (Office of the Vice President) to promote mandatory military service reveals her for the dictator-in-waiting she is."

In response, Duterte accused Bello of being “stuck” with the idea of dictatorship, which he supposedly linked with the youth’s military service.

“If only Mr. Bello did not stop at what he has been so stuck in over the past many years — dictatorship in the Philippines, something that we know is a lie in the present time — he would have a better understanding of what I truly stand for,” she said.

Both Duterte and Bello are running for vice president in the May 9 elections. —VBL, GMA News