Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III. (File photo from the Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III has proposed a law that would enable the government to mobilize young Filipinos for mandatory military service.
In a recent statement, Pimentel supported President Rodrigo Duterte’s plan to revive mandatory military training as part of the school curriculum, saying that it “has become indispensable” for government to tap the youth for service due to calamities and security threats.
During the years under President Ferdinand Marcos, Citizens Army Training (CAT) was a mandatory part of the fourth year high school curriculum, and Citizens’ Military Training (CMT) was a mandatory part of the college curriculum, taken up for two years, or four semesters.
Enrolling in the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) was then, and still is, voluntary.
Pimentel’s Senate Bill 1322 – called the Citizen Service Act – aims to set up a Citizen Service Training Course (CSTC) to train those who would be part of a Citizen Service Corps (CSC). The proposed measure also aims to create a Citizen Service Mobilization Commission (CSMC).
The Senate president stressed the urgency of the law “because of various emergencies and contingencies, both natural and man-made calamities, plus national and internal security threats that have confronted the people in recent years.”
According to Pimentel his bill would establish a comprehensive framework for the training and mobilization of the youth in order to instill a sense of patriotism and develop their love for country.
Should the bill be approved, he said: “The law would draw the youth into the mainstream of national life by providing avenues for their participation in public and civic affairs through the establishment of the CSTC.”
The CSTC, Pimentel pointed out, would mandate a Basic Citizen Training Course for all tertiary-level students enrolled in baccalaureate degree courses or technical vocational courses in all public and private colleges, universities and similar learning institutions.
CSTC will have as its basic component external and territorial defense training, similar to ROTC, but will be expanded to include trainings in internal security, law and order and disaster risk reduction and management like the National Service Training Program (NSTP).
He assured that the bill would provide safeguards through the creation of the CSMC so that abuses and corrupt practices, which previously marred the ROTC and the NSTP, would be prevented.
The CSMC will be tasked to audit the use of fees collected for the CSTC; as well as investigate cases of corruption, graft, hazing, sexual harassment, and other abuses in the program. /atm