Gordon wants ROTC a ‘patriotic duty’ for students

Senator Richard Gordon has renewed his appeal to make the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program mandatory for students.

Noting how China is already getting a foothold in Philippine territories in the disputed islands in the West Philippine Sea, Gordon urged the government to support proposals to revive the ROTC in preparation

for any possible armed attacks.

“We are challenged right now, and we should be prepared. I have been proposing the revival of the ROTC so that male citizens who are 18 years old will have military training,” Gordon said during the Commemoration of the 77th Araw ng Kagitingan and Philippine Veterans Week held at Fort Bonifacio last Friday.

“They can be asked to give six months military service. In other countries, citizens are even asked to give as long as two years,” Gordon said.

Gordon also stressed that having an army of reserved officers that can be mobilized to assist in matters of external and territorial defense, internal security and peace and order is important given that the country “faces a buffet of disasters, both natural and man-made.”

He said reserved officers can be tapped for disaster risk reduction and management.

Gordon was the guest of honor and speaker at the said event. The senator’s father, former Olongapo City Mayor James Leonard Tagle Gordon, was given a posthumous award as one of the heroes of World War II.

According to Gordon, his father was assigned as a junior officer under the Intelligence Staff engaged in intelligence gathering and monitoring the province of Zambales. The senator said his father had the rank of a first lieutenant and joined the resistance on November 1, 1943.

“Ang mga bata dapat marunong magsundalo. Dapat kaya nilang lumaban para sa bayan kung kailangan (the youth should know how to be a soldier. They ought to know how to fight for the nation in any eventuality),” he added.

With the aim to foster patriotism and nationalism among the youth, Gordon filed last year, Senate Bill No. 1417, or the Citizen Service Act of 2017 which proposes to require all college students and those of technical vocational courses to undergo basic citizen service training.

The Senate sub-committee on education, arts and culture chaired by Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, will hold its second hearing on the issue today, April 8, together with the committees on national defense and security, youth and finance.