A Manila representative, who favors ROTC for senior high school, said the subject should be taken up on weekdays and not on Saturday or Sunday to give the youth a chance to be with family, play, rest, hobbies, special interests, and some co-curricular and extra-curricular activities.
Should it become inevitable for senior high school and college students to undergo training of ROTC (reserved officers training corps), then such lessons should be held on weekdays and not on Saturdays or Sundays as previously practiced.
This should enable those required to take ROTC to make use of their weekends for family time, doing their assignments and projects at home, instead of spending another day commuting and going to school just for this added strenuous activity.
Manila Rep. Joel Chua, who favors requiring ROTC for senior high school, said the subject should not be scheduled on Saturday or Sunday. All ROTC schedules in senior high school should be on weekdays.
“Weekends should be off-limits to ROTC because weekends should be the time of students with their families, play, rest, hobbies, special interests, and some co-curricular and extra-curricular activities,” Rep. Chua said.
“I am in favor of having a special curriculum track wherein senior high students can be prepared for careers in the police, military, coast guard, firefighting, and paramedics,” Chua added.
He also said, “the pattern for this can be the existing special curriculum for the maritime track.”
“First aid training should be part of ROTC, from basic life support to advanced life support, to rescue and disaster relief ops,” said Chua whose office supports volunteer firefighters and Philippine Red Cross programs in his district.
ROTC is being pushed by Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte for senior high school until college to teach them the discipline and prepare them for nationalistic duties.
It is a potent tool in instilling discipline and nationalism among young Filipinos. Disaster resiliency and preparedness can be made part of the ROTC. ROTC cadets may also be a pool from which national athletes may be selected to represent the country in various sports events.
The ROTC, as proposed by VP Duterte would be mandatory from grades 11 and 12 all the way to college. They are technically minors. This was concurred by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. during his first State of the Nation Address last July 25.
Her reason for pushing ROTC even to minors is to mold them to become good citizens who will uphold the Constitution and defend the nation's sovereignty from foreign aggression” in the hope that they would become future leaders of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Star columnist Jarius Bondoc recently said the desire of President Marcos and VP Sara to revive ROTC for Grades 11 and 12—who are minors as they are aged 16 and 17— “can be illegal.”
The UN Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict forbids states from involving minors in war. State-parties like the Philippines must ensure that persons below 18 are not recruited or conscripted into any armed group. “Generally accepted principles of international law [are] part of the law of the land,” the Constitution states.
Reserve Officers Training Corps prepares trainees for military action. Thus, it should be for majority age starting 18.
The simple solution is to restore ROTC in college – first and second years for students aged 18 to 19. More Filipinos now go to college since it became free starting 2017.
‘Don’t reinvent the wheel’
No need to reinvent the wheel. In 2018, then-Senate president Koko Pimentel and -Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo already co-sponsored such bill. Their proposed Citizen Service Act even expands ROTC from external defense to internal peace and order, and disaster operations. The 2019 election campaign overtook Senate Bill 1322 and House Bill 5305. Time to dust them off the shelf, Bondoc said before.
Pimentel argued that “ROTC is not for inculcating nationalism. Trainees should have imbibed love of country and been taught Filipino history and culture from age five. ROTC is for military preparedness to defend the motherland. It includes training in combat, marksmanship, artillery, map-reading and other basics of soldiery. ROTC is for adults. If enforced in Grades 11 and 12, or ages 16 to 17, it would violate international law against child soldiers.
“Congress is still debating compulsory ROTC’s age and aim. Other matters have been hurdled, like inclusion of all genders or physique. The Constitution does not distinguish between male and female, able-bodied and handicapped. It just requires military training for all Filipinos, to comprise a citizens’ armed force. In defense of the State, citizens may be called upon to render personal military or civil service.
Tags: #mandatoryROTC, #seniorhighschool, #VPSaraDuterte, #PFRMJr., #discipline, #preparedness