ILOILO City – A former Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) instructor and now reservist of the Philippine Army believed that reviving the ROTC program should have been done a long time ago.
Albert Galan, the municipal disaster risk reduction and management (MDRRM) officer of Lambunao town, on Wednesday said the ROTC plays a big role in nation-building in terms of instilling discipline.
Likewise, in providing support to various programs of the local government unit like disaster preparations; environment such as cleanup drive and tree planting; health like the conduct of blood drive and local community events like fun runs and preparation for fiestas, among others.
“I support more than 100 percent the revival,” Galan added.
He said as an MDRRM officer, in terms of disasters, the reservists serve as the personnel component such as for search and rescue.
“But if they are military trained, once they are called to report on a certain date and time, they will report. The chain of command of the military is different from the chain of command of the civilians. The nature of leadership training in the military is different from leadership training in private institutions,” he said.
“The leadership training of the military is one of the most effective leadership trainings,” he added.
Galan served as an officer of the ROTC in 1998. He graduated in ROTC Advanced Course and as a reserve officer of the Philippine Army in 1992.
He became an ROTC instructor from 1992 until 1998. In 2000, he was the Operations and Intelligence Officer of the West Visayas State University-Lambunao Campus.
Lambunao, he said was consistent No. 1 or 2 among Category A ROTC units in Western Visayas. Category A means over 800 cadet-enrollees.
“Upon graduation from ROTC, one automatically becomes a reservist, you will have an assigned serial number,” Galan said.
In terms of reservists, he said Iloilo has one brigade of reservists (802nd Brigade) and one battalion (1st Ready Battalion) ready to be dispatched.
Galan, however, said the problem was the lack of discipline.
“In ROTC you obey not because there are reminders or consequences but you develop that instinct of discipline that you can still use even in private life,” he added.
On Dec. 5, around 2,500 ROTC cadets from selected colleges and universities and uniformed personnel in the country will attend a summit in Quirino Grandstand to celebrate and drum up support for the ROTC.
The event is being organized by the Office of the President through the Presidential Management Staff and Presidential Security Group, in coordination with the Department of National Defense and the Armed Forces of the Philippines through the Office of the Reservist and Retiree Affairs.
The activity will feature the silent drill competition from among the best in the Philippine Military Academy, Philippine National Police Academy, Philippine Merchant Marine Academy, Maritime Academy of Asia and the Pacific, Philippine Army Officer Candidate School, Philippine Navy Officer Candidate School, and Philippine Air Force Officer Candidate School.
The units are vying for the top prize of P300,000; the second placer will receive P200,000, and the third will get P100,000.
A P50,000 consolation prize will be given to each of the four other units.(With a report from PNA/PN)
