May ROTC program din…“Consensus bill” para sa estudyante ng tertiary, higher education – CHED

ni Lolet Abania | November 29, 2022

Bumuo ang Commission on Higher Education (CHED) at mga ahensiya ng gobyerno ng isang “consensus bill” na magpapa-institutionalize sa 2-taon na mandatory National Service Training Program (NSTP) at 4-taon na optional Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) curriculum para sa mga estudyante sa higher education.

Iprinisinta ni CHED Director Spocky Farolan ang naturang panukala sa isang Senate hearing hinggil sa mga bills na naglalayong gawin ang ROTC na mandatory.

Sinabi ni Farolan na ang “consensus bill” ay halos tugma sa mithiin ni Pangulong Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. na kanyang binanggit sa kanyang State of the Nation Address (SONA) kaugnay sa pagreporma sa NSTP law at muling pagbuhay ng ROTC program.

Aniya, ang naturang curriculum ay nakapokus sa disaster risk reduction and management at civic duty-related concerns.

“The bill will be institutionalizing, if passed, a two-year mandatory national citizens' service training program in tertiary education,” pahayag ni Farolan.

Ayon kay Farolan, kabilang sa tertiary education ang baccalaureate degrees at iba pang post-secondary courses na ino-offer ng Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) kung saan nag-e-extend ng halos hanggang dalawang taon.

“Students taking TESDA training for less than two years, like National Certificate II courses, will undergo special citizens service seminars and programs,” ani Farolan.

Binanggit naman ng CHED official na ang NSTP curriculum ay ide-develop ng isang technical panel kung saan bubuuin ng iba’t ibang ahensiya at representatives mula sa mga kaugnay na national organizations.

Nakapaloob din ang 4-year optional ROTC program sa ilalim ng naturang “consensus bill.”

“The four-year optional ROTC program, it would really be geared toward producing officers for the regular and reserved force,” saad ni Farolan.

“Of course, for the conversion of the officers into a regular force, for a regular commission, there will be other requirements as the DND... prescribed but the concept would be having a four-year ROTC course,” dagdag ng opisyal.

Ayon pa kay Farolan, kapag nagtapos na mula sa two-year program, ang parehong lalaki at babae ay iisyuhan ng two serial numbers.

“It will be a dual registration system. They would be registered under the National Service Reserve Corps which is an existing aggrupation right now under the [Office of the Civil Defense] which would be in charge of their mobilization for the non-combat and non-military activities but they will issued serial numbers for the AFP citizens armed force because they will also be deemed as members of the citizen armed force or what we refer also as AFP reserve force and they will be given military serial numbers for military or combat purposes deployment,” paliwanag ni Farolan.

Gayundin, bubuo ng isang national citizens service training monitoring at oversight committee. Ito ay pamumunuan o chaired ng CHED katuwang ang Department of National Defense (DND) bilang kanilang vice chairperson.

Ang committee ay binubuo ng mga representatives mula sa TESDA, National Youth Commission (NYC), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), at 2 representatives mula sa kaugnay na national organizations.

“[This will] ensure that all complaints are also attended to and there will be no abuses that inspections are conducted, surprise inspections especially, and all other possible abuses are immediately investigated with the power to call on agencies to compel agencies to conduct investigation necessary to ensure that none of the evils that we saw in the previous programs are experienced or at least they are prevented or immediately addressed,” sabi ni Farolan.