CATBALOGAN CITY – Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go said that he will propose a sports program as an alternative to the ROTC or the Reserve Officer Training Corps.
According to Go, who was among the guests during the Samar Day celebration on August 11, he has nothing against the proposed ROTC program.
However, there could be students who will prefer sports-related activities other than the ROTC.
“Suportado ko po ang ROTC dahil matuturuan natin ang ating mga kabataan ng spirit of Bayanihan, love of country, at disiplina, at patriotism,” Sen. Go said.
“Ngunit kailangan po nating pag-aralang mabuti kung dapat po bang mandatory kasi maari rin pong may ayaw. So suggestion po sa akin, nandyan po ang ating ROTC but magkaroon po tayo ng alternative program like sports,” the senator, who chair the committee on sports at the Senate, said.
“Ibig sabihin baka in lieu sa ROTC baka pwede po silang pumasok sa sports program,” he added.
Go said that he will be making this suggestion once they resume interpolating the passage of the ROTC bill, which is mainly authored by Sen. Ronald ‘Bato’ de la Rosa.
Meantime, Go said that including the ROTC program in the school curriculum will help students not only to instill patriotism but also gain skills and knowledge in disaster preparedness and response especially that our country is located along the storm path in the Pacific.
“Hindi lang naman po sa military events magagamit ang ROTC, makakatulong din po ito sa disaster response at humanitarian activities especially ngayon dahil sa climate change at kundisyon sa Pacific Ring of Fire, mas nagiging prone po tayo sa natural disasters and calamity,” he added.
Another contribution of having ROTC is teaching youth discipline that will allow them to stay away from illegal drugs, he added.
(ROEL T. AMAZONA)
