|
Workshop on the future of ROTC
Webmaster's note: Extracted from Fil Elefante's column "From the newsroom":
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2005/mar/06/yehey/opinion/20050306opi5.html
An organization of ROTC graduates in the University of the Philippines, the UP Vanguards, will be conducting a workshop on campus on March 12 on the future of the ROTC and the impacts of the National Service Training Program.
I have said before that the National Service Training Program was a knee-jerk reaction to the abuses committed in the ROTC unit of the University of Santo Tomas, which resulted in the murder of one cadet.
One of NSTP’s goals is to help maintain a pool of reservists for the Armed Forces. This law, however, failed to do so.
From a high of nearly 100,000 cadets that can be mobilized in a national emergency before the NSTP became law, the current ROTC strength is barely reaches 10,000.
Is this how the NSTP is supposed to help maintain an organized pool of reservists for the Armed Forces? I don’t think so.
All self-respecting nations need a readily available reserve force. I believe that the NSTP, in its current form, has crippled the Army Reserve Command instead of strengthening it.
I look forward to that workshop to be held on March 12 at UP.
Many lessons can be learned there that could, I hope, lay the seeds of developing a true citizen army for the country.
|
