Stop militarizing the youth

On the 30th of June this year, youth from Eastern Samar, Northern Samar and Samar participated in the Regional Youth Summit held at the Samar State University Gym, an activity which aimed to promote the spirit of volunteerism and to prepare the youth as future public servants.

In this activity, the Armed Forces of the Philippines urged the youth to help in monitoring acts of terrorism in the region as their part in the counter-terrorism efforts of the fascist state. But the AFP’s agendum is not just to encourage the youth to help through monitoring, they flat-out invited the youth to join the armed forces.

The current war against the Maute group in Marawi, the martial law in Mindanao, and the intensifying fascism in the whole country will only legitimize the Duterte administration’s willingness to revive mandatory Reserved Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program, to be imposed on both public and private senior high school students.

The ROTC program seeks to “instill love of country and good citizenship among the youth” through blind obedience, not molding the youth into dedicated servants of the country but as blind followers of the reactionary and fascist state.

We believe that only a nationalist, scientific and mass-oriented nature of education can give the youth the sense of volunteerism and dedication to fight for their country. We strongly oppose the revival of mandatory ROTC program and any efforts by the Armed Forces of the Philippines to entice the youth in joining the military forces.

Furthermore, we strongly condemn the continuing military rule over the whole region of Mindanao and the intensifying all-out war waged by the Duterte administration against the people.-