PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has approved the return of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program for Grades 11 and 12 students in public and private schools, Malacañang said Wednesday.
“The Cabinet has approved the Mandatory ROTC Program in grades 11 and 12,” Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella said.
He said the Cabinet approved the return of the ROTC program after the Defense Department recommended it and Duterte consented.
The ROTC was made optional in 2002 after the death of Mark Chua, a University of Santo Tomas student who was allegedly slain by course officers after he exposed their mismanagement of ROTC funds.
Abella said an amendment to Republic Act 7077 or the “Citizen Armed Forces of the Philippines Reservist Act” will be forwarded to Congress and will be certified as urgent by Duterte.
“”©”©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.
An Army official earlier said the country’s reserve force went down drastically when the National Service Training Program Law was passed in 2001.