SWS: More Filipinos favor 'optional' ROTC for senior

high
manilatimes.net/2023/05/05/news/sws-more-filipinos-favor-optional-rotc-for-senior-high/1890044

Catherine S. Valente May 5, 2023

MORE Filipinos said that the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) program should
be "optional" for senior high school students instead of mandatory, according to the latest
Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey released on Thursday.

The poll, conducted from March 26 to 29 among 1,200 respondents nationwide, found
that 42 percent of Filipinos said that ROTC should be optional as a course or community
service.

The same survey also revealed that 35 percent of Filipinos think that ROTC should be
compulsory for senior high school students, while 22 percent believe that ROTC should
not be included in the curriculum.

Mandatory ROTC for senior high students had the highest approval among Visayas
respondents with 46 percent, followed by Mindanao with 34 percent, Balance Luzon with
32 percent, and the National Capital Region (NCR) with 29 percent.

Both Visayas and NCR, however, had the highest support for the choice that ROTC
should not be included in the curriculum at all, with both 25 percent, followed by
Mindanao with 22 percent and Balance Luzon with 21 percent.

Meanwhile, optional ROTC as a course or community service had the highest approval in
Balance Luzon with 47 percent, followed by NCR with 46 percent, Mindanao with 42
percent, and Visayas with 28 percent.

The first quarter 2023 SWS survey, conducted using face-to-face interviews, had a
sampling error margin ±2.8 percent.

The Senate bill making the ROTC program mandatory for students in higher education
institutions (HEIs) and technical-vocational institutions (TVIs) is now up for plenary
debates.

Under the bill, the mandatory basic ROTC program will cover all students enrolled in not
less than two-year undergraduate degree, diploma, or certificate programs in HEIs and
TVIs. The program will be undertaken for four semesters.

In his first State of the Nation Address, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. called on
Congress to pass a law mandating the ROTC program for senior high school students.

The President proposed that ROTC be part of the senior high school curriculum in all
public and private tertiary schools.

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"This seeks to reinstitute the ROTC program as a mandatory component of senior high
school programs grades 11 and 12 in all public and private tertiary level educational
institutions," Marcos has said.

"The aim is to motivate, train, organize, and mobilize students for national defense
preparedness, including disaster preparedness and capacity building for risk-related
situations," he added.

This is consistent with Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio's earlier pronouncements

when she said that she hoped Marcos would include making the program mandatory in
his legislative agenda. Duterte-Carpio is concurrently secretary of education.

Former president Rodrigo Duterte also urged Congress to revive mandatory ROTC in
2018.

The ROTC program came under fire in February 2001 when Mark Welson Chua, a
student from the University of Sto. Tomas, exposed the alleged corruption within his
ROTC unit in an article for The Varsitarian and filed a formal complaint against his
superiors.

On March 18, 2001, Chua's lifeless body was discovered floating in the Pasig River.

Student groups held rallies to protest the incident and led signature drives to abolish the
program.

This eventually led to the passage of Republic Act 9163 or the National Service Training
Program Act of 2001, which was signed into law on January 23, 2002.

This gives college students the option to choose among ROTC, Literacy Training Service
and Civil Welfare Training Service as part of their required National Service Training
Program.

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