DepEd, security officials tackle ROTC at meet

Vice President Sara Duterte (Photo from the Facebook account of the Department of Education)

MANILA, Philippines Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte said “ideas were exchanged” on the proposed mandatory military training requirement for citizens during her meeting with officials of the country’s security sector on Monday.

“We also talked about the ROTC (Reserve Officers’ Training Corps) program … not just in basic education but in higher education and what will be the ways moving forward,” Duterte told reporters after the sit-down meeting at the Department of Education’s (DepEd) central office in Pasig City.

The DepEd and the Department of National Defense (DND) started exploratory talks for the “Preparatory Citizenship Training (PCT)” program.

Dexter Galban, assistant secretary for youth affairs and special concerns of the DND, in a Facebook post on Aug. 31 said the PCT program was a “prelude to a multitiered, well safeguarded, multifaceted citizenship program.”

Galban, however, said the program would not be the “ROTC that you know,” which only involved marching.

But Michael Poa, spokesperson for the DepEd, said there were still no concrete plans for the ROTC program, noting that it was just an “exploratory meeting” between DepEd, DND, and military officials.

—JANE BAUTISTA

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