MILITARY SERVICE | Sara’s proposal for mandatory military training has many obstacles

MILITARY SERVICE | Sara’s proposal for mandatory military training has many obstacles – defense chief

January 20, 2022 , 04:38 PM

By Manny Mogato, News5 editor-at-large

(January 20, 2022) – The country’s defense chief welcomed the proposal of the president’s daughter and vice presidential aspirant to require mandatory military training for 18 year-olds, but pointed out there could be some administrative and financial obstacles.

Delfin Lorenzana said the defense and military establishments are not fully prepared to handle civilian military training because it involved additional funds and manpower.

“There are huge hurdles in implementing this,”Lorenzana said, adding training camps nationwide and more trainers will be needed to accommodate millions of 18 year-olds for the civilian military training, which is similar to other countries, like Singapore and South Korea.

“We are not on war footing and there will be little need of a general mobilization,” he said, unlike in other countries where there is always a threat of external aggression.

He said there are also “anticipated objections of those who are not inclined to serve in the military.”

Mandatory military training under the Reserved Officers Training Course (ROTC) in the universities was scrapped under former president Fidel Ramos, a retired army general, but expanded citizen’s training to include civilian police service and disaster preparedness and response.

Military training became optional in 2001 as a response to the death of a student who exposed anomalies in the ROTC program in the University of Santo Tomas (UST). Many students also opted to go into civilian services.
Lorenzana said restoring the ROTC program in private and public schools “is the better alternative.”

“We are already starting to implement this in the state universities and colleges,” he said. “This program, which targets the K11-K12 levels, will produce a huge number of youths who will form part of our reservists. We feel that the product of the ROTC program is more than sufficient to meet our requirements for warm bodies in case of conflict and in times of calamities and disasters.”

On Wednesday, the president’s daughter, Sara Duterte-Carpio said she would ask the House of Representatives and the Senate to pass legislation for the mandatory military service of Filipino adults if she wins the vice presidential race in May.

Colonel Ramon Zagala, a spokesman for the armed forces, said the proposal “is attuned to the times when the government is faced with adversities and challenges and is aligned with our aspirations for the citizenry to contribute to nation building.”

“Rendering mandatory military service will only help us to establish a base for a strong armed forces, and therefore a strong nation,” Zagala added.
But activist groups opposed the proposals.

“This proposal is absurd, unfair and irrelevant,” Perci Cendana of the Party-List grou Akbayan. “Nasa gitna tayo ng pandemiya tapos ito plano ni Sara? It only serves to whitewash his father’s cowardice to China. For the last five years, Sara’s father bowed down to China and its interests. The Duterte administration has done precious little to assert our sovereignty and territorial integrity in the West Philippine Sea. And now after failing in its duty, the government’s vice presidential bet wants future generations to make up for their treachery by imposing compulsory military service?”

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