Pres. Duterte gives go signal for revival of basic ROTC—Palace

President Rodrigo Duterte has approved the recommendation of the Department of National Defense (DND) to revive mandatory Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program (Photo: Government of the Philippines)/ Facebook)

MANILA—President Rodrigo Duterte has approved the recommendation of the Department of National Defense (DND) to revive mandatory Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program “to instill love of country and good citizenship among the youth.”

Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella said President Duterte gave go signal for endorsement in Congress of a bill amending Republic Act No. 7077 which mandates the “institutionalization, development, training and organization” of basic ROTC in Grades 11 and 12 during last Tuesday’s cabinet meeting.

Abella said the mandatory ROTC program will cover public and private senior high schools.

“In his 2016 State of the Nation Address, the President made a policy pronouncement to strengthen the ROTC program to instill love of country and good citizenship among the youth, and to make it once again mandatory,” Abella said in a text message to Palace reporters on Wednesday.

He said it will be submitted to Congress for deliberations and hopefully, for approval.

ROTC is now just one of the three components of the National Service Training Program, a civic education and defense preparedness program for Filipino college students.

A hazing incident involving the death of Mark Welson Chua of the University of Sto. Tomas and corruption have prompted the government to stop the mandatory implementation of ROTC program in 2001.