‘PH must have well trained, driven reserve corps

A senior administration congressman yesterday urged the Commission on Higher Education ( CHED) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to include “war games” exercises and “guerrilla tactics” training in the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) to lure students to enroll in the military program and at the same time prepare the youth to “defend their country” in case of war.

The proposal was aired by Batangas Rep. Mark Llandro “Dong” Mendoza, a member of the House Committee on Higher Education, amid rising tension with China over disputed territories in the West Philippine sea.

Only last week, China deployed missiles in West Philippine sea areas it had occupied.

Mendoza, son of the late Philippine National Police Director General Leandro Mendoza, said DepEd and the AFP should allocate funds to promote ROTC enrolment and encourage the youth to choose the military training from among the three programs offered under the National Service Training Program (NSTP) which is mandatory for all college students.

“Majority of the country’s college students have shown little interest in ROTC not just because of the Mark Welson Chua case but also because it does not appeal to the youth,” said Mendoza, head of the Nationalist People’s Coalition contingent in the House of Representatives..

Chua was a student of the University of Sto. Tomas whose remains were fished out of the Pasig River in 2001 after s exposing supposed irregularities within in the ROTC program.

His death stirred public outrage that eventually resulted in the abolition of mandatory ROTC training through the approval of the NSTP law the following year.