Opinion Mandatory Patriotism

THE ILL-ADVISED MOVE of the Philippine government to implement the mandatory Reserved Officers Training Corps (ROTC) for Senior High School students threatens the well-being of youth and demonstrates a glaring disregard for the dire state of the nation’s educational and economic sectors. This not only undermines the student’s freedom to choose their own path but also exacerbates access to education and impedes the utilization of the financial resources of the country.

Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the current President of the Philippines highlighted in his last State of the Nation Address that the aim of the said program is to motivate, train, organize, and mobilize students for national defense preparedness and capacity building for the risk-related situation. This will also instill patriotism and discipline in the students which have been the main problem according to the administration, he added.

Note that Mark Welson Chua, a University of

AS THE RESULTS of the last presidential election became apparent with 31 million votes, my stomach curled up as the future reality at that time loomed near: the son of a dictator who wreaked havoc to the Filipino community for 20 years was set to sit at the helm of the presidential palace.

It is important to keep in mind that Ferdinand Marcos Jr. did spend his childhood in the palace, living the life of an aristocrat and being served by dozens upon dozens of drudges.

Their family drenched themselves in social gatherings of grandiosity, while a large portion of the Filipino population lived beneath the poverty line. Journalists, meanwhile, risked their lives to cover stories of oppression.

Remember those 70,000 innocent people who were imprisoned, 3,200 who were killed without due process of law, and the 1,000 who disappeared, not to mention the forgotten faces who have not surfaced until today.

St. Thomas student, was killed in 2001. His death is largely connected to his expose of alleged irregularities in the university’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps unit and was the impetus for the adoption of Republic Act 9163, also known as the ”National Service Training Program Law,” which eliminated the ROTC graduation requirement for male college students in the Philippines.

The program was successful in instilling patriotism, but not because of the ROTC itself, rather, it served as a channel for students to take a position for what is right in the face of the wrongdoings of the people behind it. But of course, not everyone is like Chua who was prepared for the outcomes of his decisions. Other students could have done the same thing with the officers, which may result in the conception of the program having values that were not the same as the ones that they should administer to students.

Meanwhile, the fact that there are over 10,000 secondary schools makes it difficult for the government to enforce this scheme. The Bicol Regional Science High School administration has also voiced concerns, highlighting that specialized curriculums such as science-oriented schools will lose their essence if the program is implemented.

Ultimately, the K-12 program is just about hanging on by a thread due to a number of problems, the primary one stemming from insufficient financial resources and teachers in the school. It will only set drawbacks as it is