‘It’s high time to abolish CAT, COCC’

Sen. Renato Cayetano said yesterday that it is now high time to abolish the Cadet Officer Candidate Course (COCC) and the Citizens Army Training.

"COCC and CAT are now an anachronism in view of Republic Act 9163 which makes the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps an optional course for all college students," he explained.

The law, authored by Senators Ramon Magsaysay Jr., Vicen-te Sotto III, Juan Flavier and Cayetano, gives college students the choice of taking up ROTC of any of two national service training programs for two academic semesters.

"Once the COCC and CAT are abolished, students could devote their time in studying core subjects to enhance their skills in these subjects and provide them a well-rounded education," Cayetano explained.

In a related development, Cayetano said he would also file a bill seeking to empower both the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to regulate the amount of tuition increases under certain guidelines and standards.

Cayetano, chairman of the Senate committee on education, said that the filing of a bill has become necessary following the failure of the two agencies to regulate tuition increases in private schools.

The DepEd has authority over primary and secondary schools, while CHED has jurisdiction over colleges and universities.

Cayetano expressed his frustration that despite the existence of jurisprudence recognizing the power of CHED and DepEd to regulate tuition increases, the two have been remiss in exercising this power.

"Parents and students alike have been complaining against the unreasonableness of tuition fee increases but DepEd and CHED have been doing nothing to address this concern. The two are not as helpless as they want us to believe. They have all the power and authority, only they don’t want to use these, for reasons known only to them," he said.

This year, tuition hikes have ranged from 10 to 1,000 percent. – Efren Danao