Last week we watched a debate of students from the STEH department.

Students have tried to

present and defend their own arguments on the subject. The topic of the debate is "This house believes
that ROTC should be abolished". What is ROTC? Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) in the
Philippines is one of three components of the National Service Training Program, the civic education and
defense preparedness program for Filipino college students. There are pros and cons of ROTC program.

For me, abolishing the ROTC is a little bit excessive action that could lead to unpreparedness and
lack of reserve officer of the Philippines. We still need to consider ROTC because first, they have roles
that are good for the country and ROTC wasn't yet a mandatory program. Some students still want to be
on this path. It's not that students are forced to join the ROTC; they are the one to decide if they will join
or not. Second, ROTC promotes discipline and obedience. Anywhere in the world, people look up to the
military culture for discipline and responsibility. Third, by taking this we can learn on how to protect and
defend not just ourselves but of course our beloved country in case someone or something crashed and
conquered the country. If we think it is less likely to happen now, well we can't base the possibility on
what we think. We cannot anticipate what may happen that requires military training. We cannot afford
to jeopardize our country so we must learn to protect it. Perhaps the most progressive and developed
nations are also the ones that keep their defenses intact. This suggests that military training aims to
educate the youth and prepare them to be good citizens. Countries with a strong military foundation are
less likely to be attacked. On the contrary, a larger number of reserve forces are unnecessary for this
generation. The proposed MANDATORY is pointless, because we do not need vast number of ROTC since
we have different department mandated by the government to protect and promote peace in the
country. It is good to have ROTC but don’t need to be massive. Moreover, not everyone is ready for
ROTC training programs, and we don't need all to join. Lastly, it can be time consuming and demanding.
Students in ROTC must juggle their regular schoolwork with extra training, meaning they often have less
free time than their peers.

All in all, we don’t either need to abolish and we don't either need to abolish or mandatory
ROCT. There is a reason why there is a ROTC in our country that we need to consider. The ROTC also
helps a lot. There are significant opportunities and benefits to us especially those who are involved. We
also need to think of others who are not in favor of joining the ROTC. Remember that we are in a
Democratic country, we need to respect every decision each one makes. Don't force things on someone
because we have different abilities and perspectives in life. We would have made peace and order easier
if we all worked together.