The government is pushing for the revival of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) to instill discipline and love of country among the youth amid the threat of illegal drugs in society.
Chief presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo said President Duterte approved the proposal to make ROTC program mandatory again for college students during a Cabinet meeting last Monday in Malacañang.
“The ROTC will be revived because the young generation has lost discipline, has become addicted to drugs. There is no longer spirit of love of country,” Panelo said in Filipino during a media interview at the Palace.
“That was the consensus (to amend the bill that made ROTC optional),” he added.
The ROTC, a military training program, was made optional under the two-year National Service Training Program (NSTP) Act in 2001 in the wake of fatal hazing activities. The two other NSTP options as prerequisite for graduation are literacy training service and civic welfare training service.
In the Cabinet meeting, Panelo said the President fondly recalled that he skipped ROTC classes. When cabinet members asked Duterte who instilled discipline in him, the President said his mother was the “disciplinarian” in the family. (Genalyn D. Kabiling)
