ROTC

[OPINION] Do we need mandatory ROTC? A look at the numbers

Edilberto De Jesus

This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.

[OPINION] Do we need mandatory ROTC? A look at the numbers

Raffy de Guzman/Rappler

'Few ROTC graduates pursued a military career. This was possibly due to a question of incentives.'

A review of ROTC enrollment, after NSTP made the course optional in 2002, prompts an understandable, knee-jerk “yes” response – because the number of enrollees and graduates did drastically drop the following year. NSTP/ROTC, reduced to one year, produced 47,000 graduates in 2003, a 43% drop from the 82,000 recorded the previous year. Enrollment dipped to its lowest point in SY 2006-07 to about 161,000 and the number of graduates to 37,000, respectively 52% and 45% of the 2002 totals.

By 2014, the regular AFP faced shortfalls between the authorized and actual levels of force strength: 20% (103,000 vs. 85,000) in enlisted men and 80% (10,000 vs. 2700) in the officer corps. ROTC provided 3,400 troops and 3,600 officers. Adding to DND/AFP concern, however, the number actively joining the service from among ROTC graduates also lagged behind the numbers authorized for the Reserve Force, with gaps of about 75% in the officer ranks (16,000 vs. 4000) and 30% (122,000 vs. 85,000) among the soldiers.

But comparing actual against authorized force levels does not tell the whole story. By SY 2013-14, Basic ROTC enrollment had bounced back to 281,000 and 66,000 graduates, about 92% and 80% of the 2002 numbers. Moreover, NSTP did not reduce enrollment of Basic ROTC graduates into the Advance ROTC course. The number of Advance graduates actually increased from 2,900 to 3,200 between SY 2001-02 and 2002-03 and reached 6,400 in 2012-13.

Between 2008-13, Basic ROTC and Advance ROTC respectively produced 157,000 and 28,000 graduates. Going simply by the 2014 numbers, the optional ROTC programs offered under the NSTP regime appeared quite capable of maintaining the levels authorized for the Reserve Force. The persistent shortfall in authorized reservist troop and officer strength presented a problem, but one that could not be entirely blamed on the NSTP. Because the issue goes beyond numbers.  

ROTC graduates were not necessarily rejecting the military profession as a career, a contention that the number of applicants, male and female, to the advance program and to the Philippine Military Academy would dispute. While all ROTC graduates are automatically enlisted as reservists, DND/AFP has not sustained a well-supported program of regular training to keep them interested in, and ready for, active service when needed.  

Few ROTC graduates pursued a military career. This was possibly due to a question of incentives. It arguably also stemmed from the structure, management, and conduct of ROTC training; the program was not providing the competencies needed by DND/AFP. In 2013-14, only 7,000 of 22,000 ROTC graduates passed the examination for Advance training.  

As some within DND/AFP recognized, poor program quality, rather than promote the profession, produced instead unintended, undesired, but not entirely unpredictable consequences: inadequate supervision of the trainees; abuse of authority and corruption at both official and student levels; substandard quality of training; and alienated and contemptuous student cadets. 

DND/AFP was not oblivious to the problems and their repercussions and tried to address them.  But the government never provided them with the support and the material resources necessary to run a massive program that they did not have the personnel to manage effectively. Some indeed saw the NSTP, with fewer students to train, as an opportunity to implement an updated curricular design that would develop the knowledge and skill sets required by the changing security environment and the increasing demand for reserve force support in humanitarian assistance and disaster response (HADR). Twenty years ago, Far Eastern University piloted an alternative ROTC course focused on disaster-preparedness that had earned the approval of both the students and the DND/AFP.

Redesigning the NSTP/ROTC program to DND/AFP specifications will definitely require additional funds, but likely much less than the estimated annual cost of over P65 billion needed to support mandatory ROTC for tertiary-level students. DND/AFP will also have to cope again with a pre-NSTP problem, the drain imposed by a larger number of trainees on its personnel resources. In 2014, it already found itself stretched to manage 468 NSTP/ROTC units dispersed across different regions. Compulsory ROTC will not remedy the basic source of ROTC vulnerability — its failure to motivate the support of the millennial youth market.

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In 2013, Reservist and Retiree Affairs drew up a Transformation Road Map (TRM) that focused on two goals: 1) a mission-capable reserve force ready by 2016 to assist DND/AFP in war, HADR and nation-building; and, 2) a “strong and sustainable armed forces in the Asia Pacific Region, a source of national pride” by 2022. The TRM needs revisiting and communication to the public.

Since 2013, the CPP/NPA threat has diminished from its levels in the 1970s. We did not anticipate the resurgence of the radical Islamist challenge, China’s aggressive ambitions in the West Philippine Sea, the Duterte drug war, and the pandemic. These internal and international developments doubtless affected the progress of the TRM. But what it accomplished and what it left unfinished deserve careful study before the government embarks on a hard and costly 180-degree policy turn.

Legislators have assured DND/AFP that they can find the necessary funds to restore mandatory ROTC. Of course, they can; the money will be extracted from the taxpayers’ blood and sweat, not theirs. But surely, Congress can find alternative, worthy causes, beyond mandatory ROTC, upon which to pour an annual budget of over P65 billion.

How about funds to help struggling farmers or PUV drivers? Or to combat malnutrition among children?  Or, as seems to be the pressing concern of Representatives Divina Grace Yu and Jeyzel Victoria Yu and Senators Bong Go, Bato de la Rosa, Mark Villar, and Francis Tolentino, even funds to give additional privileges to kawawa (pitiful) former presidents? – Rappler.com

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