35% support for mandatory ROTC much lower if SHS students included in survey — group
MANILA, Philippines — Youth group Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan argued that the measly support for the mandatory Reserve Officers' Training Corps for senior high school students "would have been even lower" if Grade 11 and 12 pupils were included in the survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations.
SPARK said this in a statement on Saturday after only 35% of Filipinos showed their support for the return of the mandatory ROTC in schools, lower than the 42% of Filipinos who prefer to keep it optional.
"While the statistics from the recent SWS report express discomfort with the mandate, we believe that the numbers would overtake those who say that it would be compulsory had the data included students," said Sophia Reyes, spokesperson for basic education of the group SPARK.
"The central data that this and the other recent surveys still miss, however, are the primary stakeholders of mandatory ROTC," she added.
According to SWS's methodology, the researchers only interviewed 1,200 adults, aged 18-years-old and above.
Around 22% of the said sample size, on the other hand, said the ROTC should not even be in school curriculums.
SWS's lastest survey differed from Pulse Asia's study released last April which claimed that 78% of Filipinos support mandatory ROTC in colleges. Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, who commissioned the said survey, is one of the authors and sponsors of Senate Bill 2034 or the proposed Reserve Officers' Training Corps Act.
Mandatory military training in schools continues to be a controversial issue in the Philippines. Hazing within the ROTC has been documented before, with student groups claiming that it had been used by active duty officers to conduct military surveillance in campuses.
In 2021, a class linked to the ROTC in Bulacan State University reportedly became "an avenue for red-tagging."
It had ceased from being a required course after a protest following the death of Mark Welson Chua back in 2001. Chua disclosed "first-hand knowledge" of corruption within ROTC to The Varsitarian, the official student publication of the University of Sto. Tomas.
"The reinstatement of mandatory ROTC solves none of the current issues that plague our country, especially issues that Filipino students face under our education system," said SPARK National Coordinator John Lazaro.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in 2022 included the return of mandatory in his legislative agenda in the hopes that it would "motivate, train, organize and mobilize the students for national defense preparedness, including disaster preparedness and capacity building for risk-related situations."
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