Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Delfin
Lorenzana is open to proposal to revive the country's Reserve Officers Training
Corps (ROTC) program.
This is now necessary as the AFP's reservist pool is now
very low ever since Republic Act 9163, known as the National Service Training
Program (NSTP), went into effect in December 2001.
The NSTP became a law after University of Sto
It has three parts — the NSTP-ROTC, Literacy Training
Service, and the Civil Welfare Training Service.
Aside from beefing up the military's strength, Lorenzana
said reserves also play a key role in disaster response as they can be the
first responders.
Meanwhile, Philippine Army (PA) commander Lt. Gen. Eduardo
Ano strongly welcomes this development.
"We welcome that development, because it is the duty of
every citizen to defend our country in times of war or emergency so it is
really important that all citizens of the country are well trained or at least
trained by the military so that when the time comes that we need to mobilize
the citizenry we are ready," he added.
However, there is a need for law to be enacted to make this
mandatory for all male college students, Ano pointed out.
Aside from beefing up the country's reserves of
trained-military manpower, the PA chief said ROTC will also help in character
development and foster patriotism among its trainees.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=910754
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