AFP to help in ROTC bill
By Rio Rose Ribaya
March 03, 2009

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. instructed the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to help them in the formulation and submission of the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) Incentives Bill.

Maj. Gen. Reu Lucio Samaco, AFP deputy chief of staff for reserve affairs, was tasked to join Department of National Defense (DND) in the submission of the ROTC Incentives Bill, which he said will look for a budget source to fund free education for cadet scholars.

Teodoro explained that the bill would revitalize volunteerism in the ROTC program because it would offer wiser and more practical option for students.

In the proposed bill, Teodoro explained that colleges and universities will give free education to students who will volunteer for ROTC in exchange for an eight-year service in the military immediately after their graduation.

"I think it (bill) will be of great help (to revive volunteerism in ROTC) because we need to be practical and not just rely on loyalty and patriotism. And what’s the best thing to do? Free tuition (and) guaranteed employment," he said.

Teodoro, a former legislator, also said that the bill would also increase the number of officers who want to render service in the military. "This will solve the problem of the dwindling number of cadets applying in the Philippine Military Academy in Baguio City.’’

PMA records showed the decreasing number of youth who want to serve in the military when the number of applicants went down from 21,051 in 1997 to 7,739 in 2007.

Teodoro added that he will appear "Tayong Dalawa," a high-rating primetime teleserye on ABS-CBN, not to become an actor, but to spur more public attention into the AFP.

"We are exploring all avenues in increasing the trust and respectability of the Armed Force of the Philippines (AFP) to affect development mechanisms to make an armed force that the people can be proud of.

"We’re exploring the media.

I consented to guest in a show Tayong Dalawa because of the fact that it has spur attention for the armed forces… That is another way by which we are attracting interest in the armed forces for youth," he said.

Teodoro also tasked Samaco to conduct a study on how to reshape the ROTC into an Officer Training Corps program, a kind of training that will give equal chance to reserve volunteers to have the same skills as the traditionally-commissioned officers.

He also ordered Rear Adm. Ramon Punzalan, the AFP deputy chief of staff for personnel, to conduct a feasibility study into having an objective standard of promoting reserve officers through competitive examinations.

The adjustment of promotions based on individual merits rather than by seniority would be a great way to promote the welfare of reservist officers and attract more people into military service, Teodoro said.

The top defense official said these are but a few actions and programs that the defense department has thought to solve the dwindling number of ROTC volunteers and the problem of maintaining a large number of reservists within the military.

He added these programs would be sufficient while lawmakers in the House of Representatives deliberate whether to allow the revival of mandatory ROTC with badly-needed reforms or not.

In 2002, the National Service Training Program (NSTP) Act of 2002 made the ROTC program optional for college students following the death of UST engineering student Mark Chua that exposed cases of corruption and anomalies in the program.

This should not be the ROTC is not the
best training ground for future soldiers.
The Philippine Army needs soldiers who are well educated professionals.
It means DND/AFP should increase the number of plebes/cadet
admisions to the PMA baguio city.
:banana: