by Gail Momblan/PNA
The 3rd Infantry Division (3ID) of the Philippine Army has expressed its support for the revival of the Reserve Officers’ Training Course (ROTC) in the country as this “would instill love of country and good citizenship among the youth”.
Col. Erickson Rosana, Assistant Chief of Staff for Operation of the 3ID, said on Thursday the reimposition of the ROTC will be made in Grades 11 and 12 and will no longer be in college.
Rosana said the program will be more on values and character formation and not much on military affairs.
“The ROTC bill wants the enhancement of civic consciousness and patriotism; help the country in times of major disasters and national defense,” he said in a press briefing held in Camp Martin Delgado in this city.
According to him, the methods of instruction would be crafted by the Department of National Defense, Department of Education, and the Commission on Higher Education.
Meanwhile, Rosana again clarified that the ROTC has nothing to do with the incident involving two college students in Dumangas town, Iloilo.
Chief Insp. Jogen Suegay, chief of Dumangas Municipal Police Station, in a phone interview on Thursday, said Elmer Decilao allegedly struck his fellow student Willy Amihoy with an iron pipe.
The incident happened last March 11 inside the boy’s dormitory of Iloilo State College of Fisheries.
Suegay said the suspect was angered because he was being accused of taking the victim’s wallet.
Amihoy succumbed to head injuries while charges of murder were filed against Decilao before the Iloilo Prosecutor’s Office Tuesday afternoon.
Suegay confirmed that Decilao was not an ROTC corps commander and did not use the ROTC program to commit the crime.
“Connecting the ROTC to the incident is just the propaganda of the opposing parties. What happened to Dumangas is a criminal act involving two individuals fighting over personal matter,” Rosana said.