ROTC Comeback Courts Student Revolt, Youth Group Warns

The Kabataan Party today countered the proposals to reinstate the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) as a mandatory requirement in tertiary schools, saying the plan will be met by campus protests and possibly a student revolt.

Raymond Palatino, president of the Kabataan Party and convenor of the Abolish ROTC Network in 2001 said the proponents' basis for reinstituting the ROTC as a mandatory college course is both downright ridiculous and devious.

Palatino said two bills seeking to restore compulsory ROTC in schools were filed in Congress this year – Senate Bill 2224 authored by Senator Alfredo Lim and its counterpart House Bill 5460 or the "Mandatory ROTC Act of 2006" which was filed in May by Cebu Representative Eduardo Gullas.

Both lawmakers, he said, claim that the ROTC remains the most effective tool to instill the values of service, discipline and patriotism among the youth.

"It's funny how the military and their allies in Congress keep on insisting that ROTC develops service, discipline and patriotism yet it operates in an environment where cadets are indoctrinated with the do-or-die mindset and are reduced to blind followers."

"Besides, the real essence of service is voluntarism and not conformity or submission to a higher authority. And how can ROTC teach service and patriotism if cadets are instructed with the 'obey-first-before-you-complain' mentality?"

Palatino said the ROTC has long lost its relevance and had been reduced to a fraudulent money-making scheme, convincing thousands of students in various campuses to boycott ROTC trainings starting in July 2001until it was made optional the same year under the new National Service Training Program (NSTP).

"And who will forget Mark Chua? His murder, allegedly by elements of the University of Santo Tomas (UST) ROTC, sparked the anti-ROTC protests in campuses nationwide that year. He was found dead after he exposed the corruption in the UST ROTC."

For his part, Kabataan Party vice president Carl Marc Ramota warned that the reinstatement of a mandatory ROTC would mean stronger military presence in campuses and the resurrection of the notorious Student Intelligence Network (SIN).

Ramota said the recruitment and operation of SINs in schools were exposed in 2001 at the height of the campaign to abolish ROTC.

"The SIN serves as the extension of military intelligence operatives in campuses to spy on student councils, publications and organizations that are known critics of the government."

He said the continued operation of the SIN in campuses vulnerably opens student leaders to possible attacks, with members and leaders of progressive organization being murdered left and right allegedly by the military.

"The proposal to reinstate ROTC and the allotment of P1 billion for counter-insurgency are part of the government's desperate effort to woo the military's support for the Arroyo administration and extend its punitive action and quell anti-Arroyo activities in known hotbeds of student activism."

Meanwhile, the Kabataan Party said other student groups, councils and publications have already expressed strong opposition to the proposal.

"Any plans to make ROTC compulsory again will be met with protests. The abolish ROTC demonstrations in 2001 should serve as a warning to its proponents and the Arroyo administration of the potential unrest that it might cause in the student sector."