Category: JROTC

ROTC stands for ‘Reserved Officers’ Training Corps’ and is defined by the 12th Congress of the Republic of the Philippines as, “One of three components of the National Service Training Program, the civic education and defense preparedness program for Filipino college students”. The idea has long been established ever since the Philippine Commonwealth but progressed to different stages of implementation throughout the years.

It started off as a completely voluntary endeavor that was first known as ‘Military Science’ and first established in the University of the Philippines. Fast-forward to World War II, it became mandatory wherein college universities are required to conscript students to be deployed for war. Later, it came back to becoming completely voluntary, until the late President Ferdinand Marcos made it a Presidential decree No. 1706 to make it mandatory. Following these are a string of controversies telling of its supposed uselessness and how it endangers lives of teenagers due to the corruption surrounding it. This followed various efforts that intend to abolish the mandatory status of the ROTC thus the government answered it with the National Service and Training Program (NSTP) and allowed students to choose for themselves. From then on, ROTC has faced a decline of enrollees even with schools that implements it. On the other hand, there were also various efforts to once again make ROTC mandatory, the latest with the current President Rodrigo Duterte signing for the mandatory ROTC starting from High school.

One of the main goals of ROTC is development of civic consciousness and good citizenship among the youth. It wants national responsibility from the Filipino citizens. It provides citizens a way to give back to the country that ensures his/her safety and welfare. On top of that, it said that discipline would be inculcated to shape the people to be better law-abiding citizens and might also be able to erase common bad Filipino habits such as the infamous ‘Filipino time’ and many more.

On the other hand, let’s consider how the military life is not for everyone. Military service is no easy task and requires a great deal of willingness and passion to be able to withstand it.

Just like how Glenn, L. and Castle, M. told in their essay, ‘We need to stop thinking about the military as a rites of passage type experience for young people the world, and start treating is as the serious, life altering commitment that it is’.

Fortunately, at today’s time, serving the military is not the only way to show nationalism and patriotism.

According to Tucay, M. (2015) of Rappler, “Nationalism precisely mandates schools to inculcate, for the large part, a sense of volunteerism, for students to pursue worthy advocacies and even activism. What the framers of the Constitution envision is not only an army of young reservists, but a generation of youth ready to battle against society’s ills, including poverty, hunger, illiteracy, and to a higher level, foreign domination in our country’s economic affairs”.

There are various other courses that could illicit nationalism and patriotism and deserves the same manner of attention as military service and even before, was already demonstrated by our ancestors. Andres Bonifacio, Juan Luna, Gabriela Silang, or in short, our heroes who fought with machetes and balisong are not the only ones considered heroes but also includes Rizal and his Illustrados with their ink and pen.

Today’s time allows the youth to demonstrate nationalism in various of ways and it is the government’s duty to tap into every possible talent and skill of the Filipino youth and incorporate it around a nationalistic and patriotic cause.

References

1. https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/countries-with-mandatory-military-service.html
2. https://www.lawphil.net/statutes/repacts/ra2002/ra_9163_2002.html
3. https://www.lawphil.net/statutes/repacts/ra1991/ra_7077_1991.html
4. https://history-ph.blogspot.com/2017/02/rotc.html
5. https://www.rappler.com/views/imho/141670-mandatory-rotc-how-about-no
6. https://www.scholaradvisor.com/essay-examples-for-college/young-people-choose-military-service/
7. https://www.scholaradvisor.com/essay-examples-for-college/military-service-mandatory/
8. https://greengarageblog.org/13-chief-pros-and-cons-of-compulsory-military-service
9. Zofia Leal. ‘Patriotism is Dead? Senator blames it on lack of ROTC reservists’. Retrieved 1 July 2013.
10. Manalo, Charlie V. (18 June 2013). ‘Youth group bucks’ proposal to revive mandatory ROTC’. The Daily Tribune. Retrieved 1 July 2013.
11. https://voxeu.org/article/impact-mandatory-military-conscription-crime-and-labour-market·

Based on the lesson and presentation that they discussed in ROTC, there are five (5) military traditions: the tradition of valor, the tradition of duty, the tradition of honor, the tradition of solidarity, and the tradition of loyalty. Military traditions are essential in studying our history and the root of our success.

The tradition of valor is about people who are willing to take risks, sacrifice, and surrender their lives to fellow human beings. They offered their own lives for the sake of their good and heroic service. It means the right attitude towards the determination and grit to achieve success. A successful person has a strong inner drive that helps him or her to succeed. It involves serving and protecting the nation, the people that surround them, their generals, and many more. Their purpose is to supply military commanders with the forces and equipment they require to achieve their objectives. In conclusion, they surrender their own lives for the sake of their fellow human beings.

Tradition of Honor: Basically, the tradition of honor is defined as showing good manners and right conduct for them to appreciate your presence. As a servant of a community in the future, first of all, we must be honored to be part of it, just like the other national heroes that we had. They sacrificed their lives for our country. That’s why we honored their braveness and dignity until now. Learning to have courtesy is a must for everyone who desires to make progress in life and achieve their goals in life. Because this is the proper way to show respect to other people. We need to empower ourselves to empower others and our society. This convention has continued to be an example of honor and living the ideals of regard, responsibility, dependability, and individuality.

The tradition of Solidarity demonstrates the importance of unity; through this, we can accomplish something that gives privileges to our country. Teamwork and communication are essential in any workplace, and in fact, in every workplace. If you’re about to form a group for one mission or one task to be completed by a group of people, including yourself, good communication is needed.

The ‘Tradition of Loyalty’ is also a measure of discipline in the military. In terms of military tradition, these behaviors and traditions are most valuable if you make an argument. This tradition will help us learn and practice being more disciplined in all different aspects of life. Being loyal is natural in some people because it’ll probably shows that they love, care, or respect someone. Furthermore, when you are courteous, people have a good impression of you, and respect automatically follows, instead of hatred. Learning to have courtesy is a must for everyone who desires to make progress in life and achieve their goals in life. Because this is the proper way to show respect to other people or co-workers.

For me, loyalty is one of the keys to having a better performance in a job, especially when we talk about being a criminologist. This understanding of military traditions is important in our lives and provides several benefits. We build and maintain traditions on purpose because they give us a sense of belonging and meaning in our lives. As a cadet, I realized and understood that values are basic beliefs that will guide, and motivate attitudes or actions. Personal values are personal beliefs about right and wrong and may or may not be considered moral. We must apply and adopt military traditions to be able to fulfill our responsibilities not only as servants of the community or country but also in different aspects of life.