EAPP LAS 3 Q2

ROTC in the K-12 Program

ROTC or Reserve Officers’ Training Corps is part of the NSTP (National Service

Training Program) for college students, and now the Department of Education and the house of

senates want it to be included as one of the subjects for Senior High School (SHS) students. It

is a military training, and everyone would be involved. This would be mandatory to all public and

private schools nationwide. There would be no exemption for girls, gays and more. Basically, if

they fail this subject they won’t graduate. It is overtly military, training young Filipinos to become

a member of the corps to be ready to assist the government during wartime and to be called

upon in matters of external and territorial defense as said by Sen. Richard Gordon. We don’t

need this ROTC program as inclusion in the curriculum of SHS program mainly because it

violates International law and will just be a financial burden.

This program would not instill or inculcate nationalism or love for country as what they

said. According to an article, ‘Training for loving the country’, by Antonio Contreras who took

ROTC or four semesters of military science in college frankly stated that the program didn’t

teach him love of country nor a sense of duty but to hate the drill. Arnulfo Empleo, a youth

formation division head of the education department, also said that love for country should begin

at home not in school. Love for the country should be an expression of a deeper understanding

of social responsibility.

Implementing this to all of the high schools in the Philippines will cause a large amount

of money, hiring trainers and other needed resources for over 11,000 high schools in the

country. According to Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said that the government would need a huge

fund of P38 billion in order to implement ROTC program in 11,817 senior high schools in the

country. This amount is close to the P40 billion fund for the free tuition law allotted in 2018. The
government can’t barely sustain the K-12 program because of the shortage of resources and

this ROTC will just add to the financial concern.

In addition, this proposed revival of mandatory ROTC violates International law. The

Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, a protocol in

which the Philippines agreed upon, implies that military programs should remain optional for

students. We should give them options on how to fulfill their socio-civic responsibilities. Also, the

said protocol mandates that persons under 18 years old should not be compulsorily recruited

into military trainings or armed forces. Meanwhile, most of the students enrolled in Grades 11

and 12 are minors violating the protocol.

ROTC is a military training preparing students in assisting the government in defense.

The proposed mandatory ROTC program of the senates will not effectively inculcate love for

country contrary to what they believe. It will need a huge fund to see a new and improved ROTC

program implementation in all senior high schools across the country adding to the financial

problem. Also, this military training should not be mandatory to stick to the International law. The

government should just focus on other programs that will truly benefit all the Filipino youths.

ROTC program should remain optional and there’s no need to include it in the SHS curriculum.