Incoming DepEd chief Angara on ROTC revival: It's up to Congress

With his term as Education secretary set to begin in about two weeks, Senator Sonny Angara on Wednesday said that he would leave the discussions regarding the proposed mandatory Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) to lawmakers.

Angara's predecessor, Vice President Sara Duterte, pushed for the revival of the mandatory ROTC, more than two decades after the program was scrapped in 2002.

The incoming DepEd chief said that he was just waiting for the decision of the Senate and House of Representatives regarding the matter.

"Ngayon, ang debate ay kung ibabalik ba, at kung ibabalik man, ano 'yung porma o hugis nu'ng magiging ROTC program natin. Ongoing debate 'yan," Angara said in a Super Radyo dzBB interview.

The debate now is whether or not to bring back mandatory ROTC, and if it is to be brought back, what will be its form or shape. That's an ongoing debate.)

"Nakaantabay tayo. Pero tayo, we yield to follow whatever policy direction the Congress sets," he added.

(We are waiting. But for us, we yield to follow whatever policy direction the Congress sets.)

Back in July 2022, President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. proposed to reinstitute the ROTC and the National Service Training Program (NSTP) as mandatory for Grade 11 and 12 students in all public and private institutions.

Marcos earlier named the proposal as one of the priority measures of his administration.

For Duterte, she had said that higher education would be better off spearheading the ROTC program, while basic education would be in charge of instilling discipline and a sense of nationalism among the students during their early years of schooling.

She earlier said that she had been conducting initial meetings with the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and other lawmakers on how to implement the program.

The mandatory ROTC program was scrapped in 2002 following the passage of Republic Act 9163, which established the NSTP.

This came after the March 2001 killing of University of Santo Tomas (UST) student Mark Welson Chua, allegedly by his ROTC handlers after he had exposed corruption in the ROTC corps. — VDV, GMA Integrated News