President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. on Monday urged Congress to pass a bill requiring senior high school students to undergo the mandatory Reserved Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) program.
The proposal was among the priority measures under Marcos administration as he aims to reinstitute military training for Grade 11 and 12 students in all public and private institutions.
"The aim is to motivate, train, organize, and mobilize the students for national defense preparedness, including disaster preparedness and capacity building for risk-related situations," he said in his first State of the Nation Address (SONA).
The mandatory ROTC program was scrapped in 2002 following the passage of Republic Act 9163, an act establishing the NSTP.
This comes following the death of Mark Welson Chua, a University of Santo Tomas student who was allegedly slain by officers for exposing alleged fund mismanagement.
During the campaign season, Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte expressed her desire to bring back mandatory military service for adults.
It's similar to the initial proposal of her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, who wanted to make the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps mandatory again in 2019.
