Senator Ronald Dela Rosa on Wednesday said he sees the passage of the mandatory Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) Bill or Senate Bill (SB) 2034 in the Senate, but only by a “slim margin.”
“My own personal estimate is that we will win by a slim margin. If there will be voting, we will win by a slim margin,” Dela Rosa, who is the sponsor of the bill, said.
He said he expects the approval of the bill before President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. delivered his third State of the Nation Address (SONA) in July.
After Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri committed to continue the deliberations on the mandatory ROTC Bill in May, Dela Rosa is confident this priority measure of the current administration will be approved.
“I am optimistic that the bill making the ROTC mandatory will be approved by the Senate,” he said.
Maintaining his commitment to enact the measure, Dela Rosa disclosed that he requested Zubiri to tackle SB 2304 and have the measure decided upon by the 24-man chamber.
“I talked to the Senate president that it should be calendared when we return (to the (Senate) so there will already be results, whether we like it or not,” he said.
Dela Rosa said people who want the measure or those pro-ROTC bill have been prodding him for the measure.
Congress is currently on break and it is set to resume sessions on April 29.
He reiterated the need for the program, more especially with the aggression in the West Philippine Sea (WPS).
“With or without the West Philippine Sea issue, we really need that. How much more that we have pending threat from the West Philippine Sea. So the more that we have to prepare. There’s no compromise for defense,” the senator, a former chief of police, said.
He stressed the ROTC program is “not an entirely new animal” in the Philippines. He said its necessity was already acknowledged by our forefathers.
“That’s not a new concept. That was already institutionalized long before you were born,” he said.
He those objecting to the mandatory ROTC that it has long been there and “our forefathers knew it.”
“They knew that we need to organize the reserve force of our defense, to discipline our youth,” he said.
“That is not an entirely new animal. It has been there since time immemorial. During the Commonwealth period, it was already there. So I dont think they will be shocked about it and all other countries, all neighboring countries, they have that program,” he explained.
Dela Rosa is one of the senators who filed a bill seeking to impose mandatory ROTC programs on students.
In March 2023, he sponsored Committee Report No. 64 containing Senate Bill 2034 which consolidated all bills on the mandatory ROTC program.
Under SB 2034, the mandatory basic ROTC program will be imposed on all students enrolled in not less than two-year undergraduate degree, diploma, or certificate programs in higher education institutions and technical-vocational institutions.
The bill is currently under the period of interpellations.