Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa expressed hope Tuesday the Senate would approve the Mandatory Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) bill before President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. delivers his third State of the Nation Address (SoNA) in July.

“There’s no cost to hope, right? Dreaming is free. I hope we can pass that before the SoNA,” Dela Rosa told reporters, referring to Senate Bill 2034.

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said they would prioritize the mandatory ROTC bill once the session resumes at the end of the month.

“I’m confident it will be approved if there’s voting now, but I know it will not be that overwhelming. I know it is just a slim margin. It’s just a majority, but the margin is very slim,” Dela Rosa said.

A former chief of the Philippine National Police, Dela Rosa said the Mandatory ROTC Law is “necessary with or without the issue of the West Philippine Sea (WPS),” referring to China’s belligerent actions in the disputed waters.

“How much more that there are pending threats in the WPS, so the more we must prepare. There’s no compromise for defense,” he stressed.

China claims nearly the whole South China Sea, which overlaps the WPS. A 2016 ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration shot down China’s SCS claim while affirming the Philippines’ 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone in the WPS.

Dela Rosa, the chairperson of the Senate Sub-committee on ROTC, assured that safeguards would be in place to prevent corruption and abuses that had stained the program.

“That’s for sure, we have safeguards. We will establish grievance committees in each ROTC unit, composed of members from the DND, TESDA, CHEd, and the LGUs,” he said, referring to various government agencies.

“They will oversee, monitor, and investigate possible abuses with proactive investigative powers,” he added.

The murder of Mark Welson Chua, a student from the University of Santo Tomas, led to the abolition of the mandatory ROTC program in 2002.

Chua and his fellow cadet Romulo Yumul exposed the corruption in the university’s ROTC program in a write-up published in their campus publication, The Varsitarian. After the story was published, Chua went missing.

On 18 March 2001, Chua’s body was found floating in the Pasig River, wrapped in a carpet, his face covered with masking tape and his hands tied.