Sens. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa and Risa Hontiveros. (File photos from the Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau)
MANILA, Philippines — “How can you defend if you don’t have a reserve? How do you fight? Fight with a keyboard — keyboard warrior.”
These were Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa’s words, translated from Filipino, when he chided on Monday those who continued to oppose the proposed return of the mandatory Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC).
In an ambush interview, dela Rosa asked the public and his fellow lawmakers how they would protect the country if there were no reservists.
“You don’t want it? Let’s wait until the day comes that other countries will shame us. You don’t want to? Go ahead, make your day. Why is that? This is our country, we have to defend this country anytime, anywhere, we have to defend it,” dela Rosa, a staunch advocate of reviving compulsory ROTC, said.
For the senator, there is a need — now, more than ever — to revive the program, especially amid the increasing tension in the West Philippine Sea.
“How can you defend if you don’t have a reserve? When you run out of soldiers, where do you get support for the soldiers? Does that mean that our earlier pronouncements that ‘we will fight in the West Philippine Sea’ do not mean anything, and it is just rhetoric? No corresponding action?” he said.
In the same interview, the senator insinuated that some only want to fight using the “keyboard,” branding them as “keyboard warrior[s].”
“You’re just messing around on the keyboard, let’s fight! But how are we going to fight here? Hit each other with a keyboard?” he said.
Dela Rosa, a former Philippine National Police chief, said Filipinos, especially the youth, should learn how to march, use weapons, crawl, run, and hide under cover.
But Deputy Minority Leader Risa Hontiveros saw the need for higher funding and support for military modernization — especially the Philippine Navy — instead of reviving the mandatory ROTC program.
“I think as the tension in the West Philippine Sea heats up, the most correct course of action for us as the Senate is to continue and judiciously increase support for military modernization, especially for the Philippine Navy and the adjustment of various other aspects of national defense and not make that an excuse. I think it is not the right policy direction to make ROTC mandatory, especially for our citizens whose ways are different in serving the country,” she told reporters in Filipino in a separate press conference on Monday.
According to her, the Senate minority bloc is now preparing its arguments against the proposed move, especially since it is now being eyed for Senate interpellations.
But if not through mandatory ROTC, where will the country get reservists?
For now, Hontiveros has no definite answer on the matter, but she noted that she is willing to consult experts.
“I think it would be better for our national defense, territorial integrity, and national sovereignty even in the West Philippine Sea, especially with the effect of our newly passed Maritime Zones Law, to have even a smaller but better, more effective Armed Forces. It’s bigger, but because there are so many of them, it’s only forced, what’s more, it’s just a loose Armed Forces, with a large part of it only mandatory to serve,” she said.