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TWELFTH
CONGRESS OF THE REPUBLIC )
OF THE PHILIPPINES )
First Regular Session )
SENATE
S.
No. 41
Introduced by Senator Flavier
EXPLANATORY
NOTE
The bill, originally filed by Senator Agapito Aquino,
in the 9th Congress, derived its legal basis from a
Constitutional provision which states that:
"The
state recognizes the vital role of the youth in nation-building
and shall promote and protect their physical, moral,
spiritual, intellectual, and social well-being. It shall
inculcate (in) the youth patriotism and nationalism,
and encourage their inolvement in public and civic affairs."
(Sec. 13, Art. II).
With
the rising tide of criminality in the country, it is
in the national interest to stimulate and encourage
young Filipinos to understand the significance of law
enforcement training for the safety of our people and
our security as a nation. It is likewise essential to
instill among our youth, the ethics of civic responsibilities
through school-based community service programs, most
especially during times of natural calamities and emergencies.
In
this light, we are seeking to transfer the required
Citizens Military Training or the ROTC (established
via Commonwealth Act No. 1, approved on Dec.23, 1935
by the then National Assembly of the Philippines) from
a required subject into an optional one. Given the current
military skills orientation of the ROTC, the future
role we would like to fashion for the youth of this
country, has been somehow limited by this compulsory
exercise. Indeed, there is also a need to orient and
involve yougn Filipinos in other relevant areas of national
concern, such as law enforcement, community service
and environmental protection. More importantly, we need
to provide them the options from which they will make
the choices as to how they can be most productive as
citizens of this country.
We
can only agree with the points raised in the Editorial
of the Manila Standard (July 20, 1992) which state that:
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"x
x x x the abolition of ROTC (Reserve Officer's Training
Corps.) and CMT (Citizen Military Training) will
be welcomed by the myriads of students who have
had to spend one afternoon a week marching around
the school campus. The millions of Filipinos who
have gonethrough this waste of time havec yet to
receive some plausible evidence for the dubious
theory that trainin in close-order drill turns people
into citizens - soldiers with the skills needed
to fight the country's enemies. This is not the
argue that all military training is useless. it
is to declare, rather, that the kind of military
training that has been given since World War II
has been more suited for producing people who can
march smartly in parades than infantry men who shoot
straight. x x x x When both trainers and trainees
are extremely skeptical about the usefulness of
the program, there's little guilt about subverting
the program. x x x x." |
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Approval
of this bill is therefore earnestly requested.
Juan
M. Flavier
Senator
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