Rep. Mikee Romero of 1-Pacman party-list is pushing for the approval by Congress of the bill requiring citizen service training for college students.
Romero, a reserve officer in the Air Force with the rank of lieutenant colonel, cited the need for Congress to prioritize the enactment of the National Citizen Service Training (NSTC) and Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) bill.
Romero said the measure would amend Republic Act No. 7077, otherwise known as the Reservists’ Law, which provides for the formation and training of a “citizen armed force of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.”
He said the final approval by the House of Representatives and the Senate of the NSTC-ROTC bill would expand the military reservists’ organization which could be deployed in times of emergencies, including calamities.
In December last year, the House passed on third and final reading its version of the NSTC-ROTC bill, under which college students would undergo a two-year mandatory citizen service training, while ROTC would be optional.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has certified the bill as urgent, saying its enactment would enhance the capacity of Filipino citizens to mobilize and perform their constitutional duty to render military or civil service in times of calamities and disasters, national or local emergencies, rebellion, invasion, or war.
“This shall be made possible by the establishment of a unified, comprehensive, and holistic national citizens service training and mobilization system,” the President said.
Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez is the principal author of the NSTC-ROTC bill, which has been pending in the Senate for more than one year.
Romero along with other military reservists are earlier paid a courtesy call on Speaker to push for the advocacy.
Aside from Romero, who chairs the board of trustees of the Association of Reservist and Reservist Administrators, Inc., those who paid a courtesy call on Speaker Romualdez included former Agusan del Norte congresswoman Charito Plaza (brigadier general, Air Force, reserve), Maj. Gen. Joel Alejandro Nanac, deputy chief of staff for reservist and reservist affairs; and Brig. Gen. Vicente Ronatay, commander, AFP Reserve Command.
