MANILA, Philippines — Senators insisted Wednesday to make the Reserve Officers Training Corps mandatory even if the Department of National Defense warned that there might not be enough military personnel to man the program.
Defense Undersecretary Franco Nemesio Gacal estimated during the Senate hearing on the proposed revival of mandatory ROTC that the military would need to deploy 9,000 to 10,000 of its personnel to run the program, assuming that there are 2,400 higher educational institutions and four members of the military assigned to each.
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“The requirement is really enormous … [the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority] and out-of-school youth are not yet included here,” Gacal said, adding that this is equivalent to around two infantry divisions covering the Davao, Caraga and Northern Mindanao regions.
Even with ROTC not made mandatory, Col. Ronald Jess Alcudia, executive officer of the military’s reservist and retiree affairs, said they currently cannot provide personnel to man all units of the program which only has 330,000 participants.
Gacal’s statement angered Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, one of the proponents of the measure, as the lawmaker said the push for making ROTC mandatory again should just be dropped if this were the stand of the DND.
“Let’s stop this. Let us go back to NSTP!” Dela Rosa said in Filipino. “You want to give the job to the [Commission on Higher Education,] to the TESDA, then let’s drop this!”
Dela Rosa pressed Alcudia if the military can handle the revival of mandatory ROTC, to which he replied: “Yes sir, with the proper support and logistics.”
“There! That’s the only answer that we want from you,” Dela Rosa said. “We will support you. Here in the Senate, us proponents, we are authors of this bill, we will not leave you alone to implement this without a budget to support you.”
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian echoed this, assuring the military and the defense department of budgetary and logistical support for mandatory ROTC.
Dela Rosa and Sen. Francis Tolentino also raised that reservists can be tapped to instruct should ROTC be made mandatory.
“Let us not think that lacking resources is a big obstacle. A lot of people want to help,” Tolentino said.
President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. has identified the revival of mandatory ROTC as one of his administration's priority bills. The ROTC was made optional following the killing of University of Santo Tomas cadet Mark Welson Chua who exposed corruption in his unit.