MANILA (UCAN): “We hope that the new vice president, acting as the new education secretary, would really conduct a serious study about bringing back the required military programme for our youth. I hope she’ll be open to debate,” the Knights of the Altar of San Vicente Ferrer Parish in Cavite province, the Philippines, said in a Facebook post on June 20, a day after incoming vice president and education secretary, Sara Duterte, was sworn in as the country’s 15th vice president.
not to push ahead with a campaign pledge to reintroduce a compulsory military programme for young Filipinos.
Prior to the presidential election in May, Duterte said she would revive mandatory military service to “instill nationalism” among Filipino youth if she was elected.
She is expected to make all young Filipino youths undertake the Reserved Officers Training Corps [ROTC] training when she becomes education secretary in the government of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. after he takes office on June 30.
The ROTC had been abolished by former president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, after several hazing deaths sparked a public outcry
The altar servers group urged Duterte to focus more on working with Church groups if her aim was to develop young people’s patriotism, as reintroducing compulsory service is not in tune with modern society and trends.
“We believe in newer methods of teaching nationalism such as volunteer work and exposure to Church mission areas, to come face to face with poverty, to smell poverty and to experience how it is to be with the poor,” the group said.
The Knights of the Altar said schools and learning institutions should be fighting disinformation perpetuated in social media, not a military programme that instills “false” fear and discipline among them.
“What the ROTC offers is very limited if the goal is to develop patriotism among young Filipinos. We can love our country by first knowing its history and to be aware of the cries of the poor,” the group pointed out.
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The group also made note of the fact that Duterte’s father, the outgoing president, had himself admitted this month that he had sought to be exempted from the ROTC when he was a youth. They said the revelation was proof that military training for youth would be ineffective.
“Even President Duterte himself admitted he did not want to do it. The goal to instill nationalism through a military programme among the young isn’t effective in this social media age,” altar server, Jess Francia, asserted.
