Reserve Officers' Training Corps (Philippines)
[1] ROTC aims to provide military education and training for students to mobilize them for national defense preparedness.
[2] Its specific objectives include preparation of college students for service in the Armed Forces of the Philippines in the event of an emergency and their training to become reservists and potential commissioned officers of the AFP.
[3] The ROTC grants qualified student-cadets scholarship benefits through a merit-based incentive program in return for an obligation of military service in the reserve force, or active duty in the AFP if given the opportunity, after graduation.
This executive order made ROTC obligatory at all colleges and universities with a total enrollment of 100 students and greater.
[7] At the onset of World War II in 1941, thirty-three colleges and universities in the Philippines had organized ROTC units, the cadets and officers of which would see action for the first time.
ROTC cadets of Silliman University in the Visayas made up 45% of the strength of the 75th Infantry Regiment of the United States Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE).
This executive order made ROTC mandatory at all colleges, universities, and other institutions with an enrollment of 250 male students and greater.
[10][11][12] A period of discontent over ROTC's conduct and the corruption that often plagued its individual units had long been fermenting prior to 2000.
Mark Welson Chua, a student of the University of Santo Tomas and a member of the UST ROTC unit, was found dead, his body floating in the Pasig River on March 18, 2001.
[16] The incident set off an explosion of anti-ROTC sentiment as student associations, school administrators and other cause-oriented groups focused on protests and parliamentary approaches to the matter.
[1] The ROTC program of the Philippines was for many decades a compelling aspect affecting the lives of male youths whom many despises it and even question it as to its relevance in pursuing a college education.
It was also a significant contributor to the corruption and abuses within the ranks of the subject as expose by Mark Welson Chua before being murdered by his fellow ROTC Officers.
As of 2008, ROTC graduates of the various services constituted roughly 75% of the AFP officer corps; the rest come from the ranks of the Philippine Military Academy.
[3] Another notable ROTC graduate was Gen. Fabian C. Ver, AFP Chief of Staff under Ferdinand Marcos and director general of the National Intelligence and Security Authority.
[20] In June 2013, Department of National Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin aired a proposal to make ROTC once again mandatory for college students, a move ardently being protested by progressive youth groups such as Anakbayan.
[30] Some camps have criticized Duterte's inclination on this issue for admitting in a speech in 2016 that he himself did not finish his supposed ROTC service during his university days,[31] and two years later, expounded that he even falsified medical documents to be able to do so.
[32][33][34] After the 2022 presidential elections, Vice President-elect Sara Duterte stated that she wants mandatory ROTC training under priority legislation.
