Catholic schools, communists oppose mandatory ROTC

From Malaya (Aug 8): Catholic schools, communists oppose mandatory ROTC

THE Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines and the Communist Party of the Philippines yesterday opposed a government plan to revive the mandatory Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program for college students.

CEAP said it does not believe that government should force students to undergo military training while the CPP said a mandatory ROTC will only lead to “blind obedience” to state authorities.

Last week, chief presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo said he would review the National Service Training Program (NSTP) law and its implementation, after Commission on Higher Education chairwoman Patricia Licuanan raised the idea of reviving the ROTC program as a means of instilling discipline and strengthening love for country among the youth.

The NSTP, created though Republic Act 9163 passed in 2001, is a civic education and defense preparedness program for tertiary education students. Under this law, students enrolled in any baccalaureate and or two-year, technical-vocational or associate course are required to complete one NSTP component of their choice, as a graduation requirement. The components are ROTC, the Civic Welfare Training Service, and Literacy Training Service.

The NSTP passage followed the death of a student of the University of Santo Tomas, which is widely believed connected to his exposé on alleged irregularities in UST’ ROTC program.

UST is one of the 1,252 member-schools of CEAP, the national association of Catholic educational institutions in the Philippines.

President Duterte last month said he wants to use the ROTC program to better promote patriotism and love of country among the youth.

Anthony Coloma, CEAP advocacy and information management officer, said the optional ROTC is sufficient in making college students aware of national defense preparedness.

“The ROTC under the NSTP is intended to instill patriotism, moral virtues, respect for rights of civilians, and adherence to the Constitution among others,” he said in a statement.

Coloma also said other college students will be “more fruitful and effective in the Literacy Training Service or in civic service, which the NSTP affirms.”

If at all, Coloma said it would be better if lawmakers will just improve upon the provisions of the NSTP Act of 2001.

The CPP, in statement, said the revival of the mandatory ROTC “will only lead to the fascist mind-conditioning of a new generation of Filipinos.”

It said the program promotes “dogmatism, zealotry, regimentation and acceptance of dictatorial systems.”

It said the use of physical, verbal and psychological abuse is at the core of the military training which, it also said, promotes hazing and torture.

“It (ROTC program) dehumanizes its trainees in order to prepare them to wage an inhuman war against the people and trample on the people’s rights with impunity. There is no way of preventing abuse under the ROTC without doing away with the training itself,” the CPP said.

http://www.malaya.com.ph/business-news/news/catholic-schools-communists-oppose-mandatory-rotc