Congress has just brought back the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC).
Our country’s lawmakers have passed on third and final reading House Bill 8961, which makes the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) mandatory for senior high school students. The measure was welcomed with approval by the current administration and the Department of National Defense. No less than President Rodrigo Duterte campaigned for the reinstatement of the ROTC as a tool for promoting patriotism and discipline among the younger generation of Filipinos.
The ROTC will be applied to students in Grades 11 and 12 and is seen to help instil love of country, good citizenship, respect for human rights, and adherence to the rule of law.
True to form, the House of Representatives voted 167-4-0 to approve the ROTC reinstatement.
The ROTC reinstatement, however, was met with brickbats as well. The smeared reputation of the ROTC stemming from previous incidents of hazing brought to fore some reasonable opposition worthy of discourse. However, lawmakers are ensuring the ROTC’s gloomy past will not happen again with some safety nets. House Bill 8961 seeks to amend for the purpose Republic Act 7077 or the Citizen Armed Forces of the Philippines Reservist Act. Under the proposed measure, ROTC training would apply to “all students in Grades 11 and 12 in all senior high schools in public and private educational institutions and shall be a requirement for graduation.
The law provides for some exemptions to the mandatory ROTC training. As provided for in the bill, students who are physically or psychologically unfit; those who have undergone or are undergoing similar military training; those who are chosen by their school to serve as the school’s varsity players in sports competition are exempted and others those who may be exempted from training for valid reasons, as approved by the Department of National Defense upon recommendation by an educational institution where the concerned student is enrolled.
Anticipating the issues that were discussed in the process of its preparation, the law strictly prohibits the use of ROTC training for “political” objective and for teaching and instilling a particular political ideology on students. More significantly, the law specifically bans hazing and other forms of physical or mental abuse.
The ROTC reinstatement should serve to empower the Filipino youth with patriotism, leadership and discipline — values that are slowly degenerating in recent times.
