Are we seeing a marked rise in the number of patriotic Filipinos willing to give up their lives in defense of our country?
That’s one conclusion we can draw from a recent news report the Philippine Army has seen an exponential rise in the number of persons applying to become soldiers.
This follows an Octa Research survey commissioned by the Armed Forces of the Philippines that showed 77 percent of the 1,200 male and female respondents expressed willingness to fight for the country against foreign invaders.
According to the Army spokesperson, almost 40,000 individuals applied in the Philippine Army for the first few months of this year alone. In contrast, there were over 45,000 applicants covering the entire 2023.
Despite the big turnout, only 4,029 of this year’s applicants will be enlisted. The training for the enlisted personnel will be divided among five batches, with first batch scheduled to begin training this month.
The total number of Army applicants is likely to increase since the online application remains open. Full implementation of the online application process for Army aspirants begins this year. The recruitment has no deadline and is still ongoing.
Applicants should register online and then wait for the Army Personnel Management Center to inform them where to take the qualifying exam.
From passers of the written exam, the APMC will choose applicants based on the skill sets required by the Army and call them for a one-week processing.
But the good thing is there are other ways to join the army.
Those willing to help fight for the country can join the Reserve Officer Training Course and Reserve Corps, and even practice professions that may become useful or even vital in case of emergencies, such as in the medical field or engineering.
The Army targets to recruit 5,000 personnel in 2024 as part of their quota.
Moreover, as pointed out by the AFP Chief of Staff, Filipinos can also help beef up our defense posture by informing their friends around the world and “echoing the call against the illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive tactics other countries are doing against our country, particularly in the West Philippine Sea.”
The recruitment of more men and women to join the military is the offshoot of government efforts to modernize the entire AFP to allow it to respond to any threat to national security.
After all, as mandated by the 1987 Constitution, the AFP should be the protector of the people and the State, and its goal is to secure the sovereignty of the State and the integrity of the national territory.