Content warning: This article contains mentions of abuse, violence and death.
The government needs P27.12 billion to reinstate the Mandatory Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (MROTC), a program made optional in 2001 after University of Santo Tomas student Mark Welson Chua died at the hands of his co-cadet officers.
Chua’s death prompted former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to abolish MROTC and replace it with the National Service Training Program (NSTP), allowing students to choose among literacy training service, civic welfare training service and reserve officers’ training corps.
It was former President Rodrigo Duterte who first floated discussions on reviving the MROTC program. Proponents of MROTC’s return seek to require all students in higher educational institutions to participate in a military training program for at least four semesters or two years. Students who fail to complete the program will not be eligible for graduation.
The bill is currently pending at second reading in the Senate and is listed as a second-tier priority of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has ordered Congress to expedite its passage before the Senate and House adjourn in June.
But instead of passing MROTC, the House approved the National Citizens Service Training Program (NCSTP) Act in 2022. The bill is composed of a two-year mandatory national citizens’ training program among public and private tertiary schools and an optional four-year ROTC.
This would replace the current NSTP, where students can no longer choose among the three components: the Civic Welfare Training Service, Literacy Training Service, or ROTC. The estimated budget for implementing this program has yet to be disclosed.
Under the Senate’s version of the MROTC revival bill, the implementation will take place in three phases:
- Phase 1: Maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) = P5,200,000.00
- Phase 2: MOOE, capital outlays, and personnel services for three years = P19,046,000,000
- Phase 3: Full implementation and evaluation = P8,027,000,000
The current proposed budget is significantly lower than the estimated P61.2 billion allocation proposed by the Department of National Defense in February 2023.
Still, if MROTC’s P27 billion budget is allocated to the education sector, it can help address schools’ long-standing problems.
In the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA), Congress slashed P12 billion from DepEd’s proposed budget, including the P10 billion allocation for the computerization program.
If the proposed P27.12 billion MROTC budget is allocated to the educational sector, it could fund approximately 774,000 laptops at P35,000 each, helping fill gaps in learners’ digital needs.
The government has earmarked P15.6 billion to build 6,000 classrooms, according to the 2023 Basic Education Report under Vice President and former Education Secretary Sara Duterte’s term. Using the MROTC budget for this purpose could fund building 10,384 classrooms across the country.
State universities and colleges (SUCs) also continue to grapple with budget cuts, including the University of the Philippines, which faced a P2.076 billion reduction this year—the state university’s largest cut for nearly two decades.
READ: Gov’t cuts UP budget by P2.076-B; infra funding hit 13-year low
The proposed funding for the MROTC program is more than enough to cover the national university’s P22.69-billion annual budget.
Bloody history
The ROTC program was first implemented in 1912 but was made optional in 2002 due to incidents of abuse within the program.
Mark Welson Chua, a then 19-year-old mechanical engineering student and former ROTC cadet at the University of Santo Tomas (UST), was murdered in March 2001 after exposing the corruption within his unit and disclosing it to Varsitarian, the official student publication of the university.
A month after the exposé was published, Chua was kidnapped. On March 18, 2001, his decomposing body was found in Pasig River, wrapped in a carpet with his face covered in duct tape.
Years later, two of the suspects of Chua’s murder, both cadets at the university, were caught. Arnulfo Aparri was initially sentenced to death by lethal injection, but after the abolition of the death penalty in 2006, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment without parole. While Eduardo Tabrilla admitted to committing homicide, he was sentenced to only 12-14 years in prison. Two more suspects remain at large and have allegedly fled to another country.
Cases of abuse and violence related to the program had been reported even before Chua’s case. In 1999, Arthur Salero, a Saint Louis University student, died due to hazing during a cadet officer training. Likewise, De La Salle University student Seth Lopez lost his life in 1995 to a similar incident in Tanay, Rizal.
Several progressive groups and political leaders have also opposed the proposed mandatory military bill’s enactment.
The No to Mandatory ROTC Network, an alliance of various student councils, party-lists and mass organizations, condemns the program’s revival because of “added expenses and waste of public funds,” among others.
Some legislators have also flagged potential issues with the bill, including Sen. Risa Hontiveros, who emphasized the need to instill a democratic rather than militaristic mindset among the youth and advocated for alternatives to demonstrate patriotism.
Meanwhile, Kabataan Party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel mentioned that tensions between China and the United States should not justify the bill’s fast-tracking.
Senate President Chiz Escudero also suggested reallocating the program’s budget to agencies that have suffered from budget slashes in the latest GAA, such as DepEd, the Department of Health, and SUCs.
The Senate will only have three months to pass the MROTC bill before the 19th Congress ends this June.
