The Armed Forces of the Philippines will make sure that only professionals will handle the facilitation of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps program once the revival is approved.

Philippine Army Commanding General, Lt. Gen. Romeo Brawner, Jr. in an interview with the Daily Tribune's digital program Straight Talk, assured that the Armed Forces of the Philippines has started crafting the training program designed for ROTC trainers to make sure it will be smoothly implemented.

"On the part of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, once we resume the ROTC, we are going to make sure that those who will handle the ROTC are professionals so that we could prevent the corruption, hazing, and other malpractices being done in the previous ROTC," he said.

Citing the importance of the ROTC revival in the country, he said it will instill a sense of patriotism in young Filipinos.

"It's because we have to prepare our citizens for any eventuality, including war," he added, citing that Ukraine utilizes its citizens to defend their country in an ongoing conflict with Russia.

He added: "They do not rely entirely on their armed forces, but sila mismo (the citizens themselves) because they were prepared, they were trained," he said.

Brawner said aside from patriotism, ROTC develops survival skills.

"These are basic skills. How to tie knots. We could learn this with ROTC. Basic skills, survival skills for instance. But as I said, more than that, it's really that sense of patriotism that we want to develop in our youth."

Barwner's stand echoed President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., call, in his first State of the Nation Address, to make the ROTC program mandatory at the senior high school level.

"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," Marcos Jr. was quoted as saying.

The House of Representatives on Thursday approved on third and final reading a measure that would establish an optional four-year ROTC program and a two-year mandatory National Citizens Service Training program.

House Bill 6687 proposes to establish an optional ROTC program for higher education students. It is designed to produce officers for the Citizen Armed Force and Regular Force of the AFP.

The Department of National Defense and the Commission on Higher Education are tasked to design the ROTC curriculum while the AFP will administer the training of the tertiary education students volunteers to become officers of the AFP's Regular and Reserve Force.

Mandatory enlistment

Brawner said the Philippines is not yet ready for mandatory military enlistment.

"We are not the same with Israel, South Korea where they require their citizens to serve a few years in the military," he said, noting that the country has a volatile situation in terms of conflict situations.

Many young people, he said, wish to be enlisted in the Philippine Army.