The Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) would be made mandatory for senior high school students, according to President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.'s plans, which have the support of the Department of Education (DepEd).

This is because the move “adheres to a core value of being nationalistic,” DepEd spokesman Michael Poa said Wednesday.

“The DepEd is in support of such measure to make ROTC mandatory, basically because it adheres to one of our core values of being makabansa (nationalistic),” he said

However, Poa said Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte “feels the need” to discuss the proposal with Congress and the Commission on Higher Education (Ched) details.

“The more prudent thing to do is for me to reserve our comments, specially the comments of the Vice President Secretary and the DepEd, once a formal proposal has been filed either in Congress with, of course, inputs from the DepEd, other relevant agencies and Ched, Poa” added

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