MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte might be pushing for a mandatory Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program as he believes Filipinos are now lacking in love of country, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Oscar Albayalde said Tuesday.
Albayalde added that the proposed mandatory military training for students in Grades 11 and 12 will embed “very important” values like sense of patriotism and nationalism on the Filipino youth.
“Siguro nakita rin ng ating Pangulo na dito tayo medyo bumababa, so we have to revive ito (Maybe the President saw that this is what we lack, so we have to revive these values),” he said in a press briefing at Camp Crame.
Aside from developing values, Albayalde said the mandatory ROTC will also help in the defense of the country in case of war.
“Of course, napakaliit naman nating bansa. We have to defend our country also, in case, hopefully hindi naman mangyari, in case of war,” he added.
(Of course, we are a small country. We have to defend our country also, in case, but I hope it won’t happen, in case of war.)
This was the same argument Duterte during his fourth State of the Nation Address on Monday, where he asked Congress to pass “very important” measures that will anchor the defense system of the country.
READ: Duterte urges passage of National Defense Act, mandatory ROTC bill
“Alam mo ‘pag magkagiyera-giyera, 10 out of 10 hindi marunong humawak ng baril to defend even his father and mother and brothers and sisters… I think military training will be good for everybody,” Duterte said. /muf