MANILA – Senators have aired varying views on the calls to scrap the bill seeking to revive the mandatory Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program in the country following the death by hazing of Adamson University student John Matthew Salilig.
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel on Friday renewed the call to drop the proposed mandatory ROTC measure in view of the hazing incident.
“Make it only optional to those who are ‘military inclined’ or interested in military matters,” he said.
Senator Risa Hontiveros, meanwhile, said she had been pushing to reconsider the revival of the mandatory ROTC program even before Salilig’s death.
“Now, that call is even clearer,” she underscored in a statement.
Hontiveros cited the 2001 killing of Mark Welson Chua, an ROTC cadet from the University of Santo Tomas, after he exposed corruption in his school’s military training program.
Chua’s brutal murder sparked calls to abolish the mandatory ROTC program. It was later made optional through the National Service Training Program Act of 2001.
“Walang puwang ang anumang uri ng karahasan sa ating mga paaralan at pamantasan (There is no space for any form of violence in our schools and educational institutions). There is no compelling justification to revive the mandatory ROTC program,” Hontiveros said.
She then called on the Department of Education and Commission on Higher Education to instead focus on “actively making campuses safe spaces and exert zero-tolerance of savage practices like hazing, to protect students from all forms of violence and unnecessary, preventable deaths.”
Clamor and reservations
Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva, who is a member of the Tau Gamma Phi fraternity along with Salilig, said the clamor to further review the mandatory ROTC proposal was fueled by this latest hazing death.
He likewise sought to have Chua in mind when discussing the move to make the ROTC program compulsory again.
“Hindi basta-basta, bigla-bigla na tinanggal iyong [mandatory] ROTC. Merong malalim, masusi na pinag-aralang dahilan kung bakit tinanggal iyan. So kung ibabalik, iyong lang ang caution natin. Dapat masusing pag-aaral ang gawin and tingnan natin nang mabuti itong mga nangyari, lalong lalo na dito sa huling biktima na may kinalaman sa isang organisasyon,” Villanueva told reporters.
The senator then bared that Salilig’s death also added to his pile of personal reservations on the mandatory ROTC bill.
“Kung iyong fraternity nga, voluntary. Ito ay mandatory. And you can just imagine din iyong kahandaan ng ating pamahalaan doon sa mandatory [ROTC]. Alam mo, tuwing mandatory [programs], diyan nangyayari iyong mga under-the-table etcetera,” he added.
‘What’s the connection?’
But Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa argued that there is no connection between the bid to again require the ROTC program and the fraternity-related hazing death.
“That is a desperate move, exploiting the death of a non-ROTC student to stop ROTC. Ang layo naman ng connection noon. What is the connection? Namatay siya dahil sa fraternity hazing. Hindi naman siya namatay sa ROTC training. Bakit gagamitin nila iyan na rason para hindi ituloy iyong ROTC bill? That is a very very desperate, pathetic move,” he said in an interview.
Asked if the bid to require the ROTC program will still push through in light of Salilig’s death, dela Rosa said: “Tuloy na tuloy. Non-stop na iyan.”
Dela Rosa, a staunch advocate for the revival of the mandatory ROTC program, also noted that the bill is seen to reach the Senate plenary by next week.
In a separate statement, he pointed out that the mandatory ROTC proposal seeks to set up local grievance boards and a national grievance and monitoring panel to conduct investigations on abuses committed under the program.
The former police chief previously said that while he is not in favor of banning fraternities, he is not pro-hazing.
Several senators have condemned the fatal hazing of 24-year-old Salilig who, according to his autopsy report, died due to “severe blunt force trauma to the lower extremities.”
READ: Senators condemn fatal hazing of engineering student
‘Memory loss’
The League of Filipino Students (LFS) slammed dela Rosa for his “willful ignorance of the history of hazing in military training” despite cases of hazing deaths in the Philippine Military Academy (PMA).
“Baka may memory loss si Senator Bato o nagkukunwaring ignorante–throwback lang tayo: last 2018, sinabi mismo ni Bato na apat na taong bugbugan ang naranasan niya sa PMA at proud pa siya dito. Alam niya na bahagi na ng kultura ng PMA ang hazing bilang initiation rite, pero sinasabi niya ngayon na walang connection ng military training at mandatory ROTC?” LFS national chairperson Ivan Sucgang said in a statement.
According to LFS, there had been six hazing deaths in the PMA since 1978.
“Ipapakalat ng mandatory ROTC ang kultura ng karahasan ng militar sa buong bansa na magdudulot pa ng mas maraming kaso ng abuso sa mga kabataan,” Sucgang added. (Beatrice Pinlac © Philippine Daily Inquirer)
