President Rodrigo Duterte in his speech on Tuesday, May 31, 2022, honoring the athletes who participated in the 31st Southeast Asian Games in Vietnam. (Photo from a PTV livestream video)
MANILA, Philippines — Outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte has admitted asking to be exempted from the mandatory Reserved Officers Training Corps (ROTC) wayback his college years.
Duterte made the revelation during the recognition of Filipino athletes in the 31st Southeast Asian Games in Malacañang on Tuesday, before he asked cameramen to stop the livestream of the event.
“Sa college, ROTC may ginawa ako para ma-exempted ako. Alam mong ginawa ko? Sabi ko, ‘Sir, paano ba tayo? T*** i** itong ROTC hindi ko matapos-tapos.’ Sabi niya ‘Eh kung may sakit ka, okay ‘yan,’” he narrated.
(In college, I did something to get exempted from ROTC. You know what I did? I asked, “Sir, how do we do this? F**k this ROTC, I can’t finish it.” Then he said, “If you have an illness, that’s good reason.”)
“Camera, putulin niyo muna. Kasi atin-atin lang ito eh,” Duterte then said.
(Camera, stop that for now. Because this is only for us.)
He was heard saying, “So isip-isip ko nagpunta ako ng San Lazaro, nakapila doon ang magpa-X-ray… “ before the livestream was cut off.
(So I went to San Lazaro, I went there to get an X-Ray.)
Duterte previously pushed for the revival of the mandatory ROTC in schools nationwide.
In 2019, he certified as urgent the bill that would bring back ROTC in public and private senior high school.
However, the measure did not pass Congress.
His daughter, Vice President-elect Sara Duterte-Carpio, also advocates for the revival of the program.
In January this year, Duterte-Carpio said that if elected vice president, she would push for mandatory military service for all Filipinos reaching the age of 18 — male or female.
In 2002, military training was made optional through the National Service Training Program (NSTP) Act of 2001 (Republic Act No. 9163), following the controversy of the killing of University of Santo Tomas sophomore cadet Mark Welson Chua in 2001 after he exposed corruption in his school’s military training program.