We, students, teachers, parents and citizens who care for our youth and the nation, call to block the rehabilitation of mandatory Reserve Officers Training Course (ROTC) via its inclusion in the Senior High School curriculum.

(1) Added Expense

Parents and students will shoulder the added expenses for uniforms, gears, food and transportation, and other contributions connected to the implementation of mandatory ROTC. It will also entail additional tuition and other fees in private schools. These added expenses are heavy burden that poor families could no longer take. The budget that the government will allocate for ROTC should be put to better use in filling in the shortages in classrooms, books, teachers and staff to improve the quality of public education.

(2) Added Burden

ROTC as an additional subject will necessitate additional time and effort on the part of the students. It will also impose extra workload to teachers who might be assigned as commandants. It will rob students and teachers of their time for rest, family and additional livelihood.

(3) Culture of Violence and Corruption

The previous implementation of mandatory ROTC saw numerous cases of violence against students, which led to not a few deaths. The program bore a heinous record of hazing, sexual assault, verbal attacks, imposition of blind compliance, repression and other forms of physical, emotional and psychological abuses. Corruption within the program was also exposed in the past, like bribery to evade trainings, collection of questionable contributions, and misuse of funds without accountability.

(4) Fake Nationalism

The government’s claim that rehabilitating the ROTCs is aimed at teaching nationalism is highly questionable, given the current government’s lack of will to defend national sovereignty in the face of China’s incursions in the West Philippine Sea. To effectively inculcate nationalism among the youth, the government should primarily strengthen the instruction of history, national language and culture subjects in the education curriculum.

(5) Threat to Academic Freedom

The commanding role of the military in the ROTC program encroaches upon the freedom of school administrators to design and operate school programs. It infringes on the academic freedom of teachers to decide on their own teaching methods. Its propensity of training students to be blind followers contradicts with the education’s objective of developing critical thinking among the youth. With the police and the military recently charging schools as havens of ‘government enemies’, the danger that they will use the ROTC program to gain access to schools, surveil and repress those it deems as enemies of the government is highly palpable.

With the resounding public clamor in 2001, the Congress has junked the compulsory enforcement of the ROTC program. The subject, which only proved to be an added burden and became a breeding ground for abuse and corruption, should no longer be resurrected. As such, we resolutely call for the scrapping of all proposed legislations and other measures that seek to rehabilitate mandatory ROTC in the education curriculum.