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On Tuesday, senators decided against initiatives to incorporate the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) into the senior high school (SHS) curriculum. Instead, they will work to reinstate ROTC in college.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian stated during a joint hearing of the Committees on Higher, Technical, and Vocational Education, National Defense and Security, Peace, Unification, and Reconciliation, and Finance that the Department of Education (DepEd) should instead concentrate on dealing with the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly the decline in the proficiency of SHS students in English, Math, and Science.

Gatchalian, the chair of the Committee on Basic Education, expressed alarm over the DepEd data showing that 51 percent of enrollees in 2020, or over 1.4 million kids, left before graduating from SHS in 2022.

According to Gatchalian, DepEd and our nation need to address this issue urgently.

He claimed that because students are already receiving training under the National Service Training Program, the ROTC must be restored at the college level (NSTP).

“Those who desire ROTC training are already receiving it. We only need to make it bigger. In order to extend it, we obviously also need to have a budget, and those are the things that we can talk about here in committee “added he.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines estimate that the cost of establishing an ROTC program at SHS is PHP9.2 billion.

The hearing’s moderator, Senator Ronald Dela Rosa, agreed with a request to change the Reservist Act so that individuals who are unable to attend college must sign up for it.

“The project will obviously require a lot of funding if it is implemented in Grades 11 and 12, as we will be starting from scratch and from square one with no ROTC program in the DepEd as opposed to an ongoing, though optional, ROTC program in the CHED, according to Dela Rosa.

He emphasized how important it is to give Filipinos the knowledge and abilities they need to save and preserve their nation.

A “consensus measure” that will institutionalize a two-year mandatory NSTP and a four-year optional ROTC program for college students was presented during the hearing by CHED and other government entities.

It would mostly encapsulate the Marcos administration’s intention to revive ROTC, which will prioritize crisis management and civic duty, according to CHED Director Spocky Farolan.

The Senate committees have established a Technical Working Group to draft the legislation, which Dela Rosa anticipates will be approved by the first quarter of 2023.

Mark Chua, a University of Santo Tomas cadet who uncovered alleged ROTC corruption, was killed in 2001, which led to the 2002 signing of Republic Act 9163, also known as the NSTP law.

Under the necessary NSTP, it gave college students the option of choosing between ROTC, Literacy Training Service, or Civil Welfare Training Service.

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