NCRPO official backs reimposing ROTC program

MANILA, Philippines — A police official is backing proposals to reimpose the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) as a mandatory collegiate program.

Lt. Col. Jenny Tecson, spokesperson for the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), urged millennials who are critics of the ROTC to give the program a chance.

“We expected the youth, particularly the millennials, to resist, but if we are persistent maybe they would understand,” she said in Filipino during a Laging Handa briefing.

Tecson said the ROTC instills discipline, which would benefit students, and the government would have more people to tap as reserve forces in the event of a national emergency.

Tecson, who went through the ROTC, believes students will eventually learn to accept the program.