Student leaders from the University of Santo Tomas (UST) have expressed their opposition to Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte's proposal to make military service mandatory for Filipinos turning 18 and instead pushed for mandatory history subjects in high school.
Duterte, also a vice-presidential aspirant, said if she wins, she would push to make military service mandatory for all Filipino adults.
In a statement, UST-Center Student Council (UST-CSC) asserted that what the country currently needs is "neither blind obedience nor subservience."
"The spirit of patriotism and nationalism, along with discipline is not cultivated through blind marches under the scorching sun nor through handling guns, but through long-term education plans that seek to solve our societal problems. Education that cultivates our culture and instills critical thinking," the student leaders said.
UST-CSC batted for the implementation of Mandatory Philippine History subjects in High School and the utilization of Philippine Government and Constitution subjects in college, as well as the intellectualization of Filipino Language and Filipino Literature.
"These should promote the strengthening of Philippine Demographics and Culture while aligning our economic and political interest to the Filipino people," they added.
Citing the data from the National Union of Students of the Philippines, UST-CSC said multiple cases of red-tagging, assault in democratic rights, surveillance, abuses, and hazing "proves that a culture of impunity is rampant" in ROTC.
"The primary goal is to instill nationalism among the youth and to promote youth service is the overly used facade of Mandatory ROTC or Military service, that, historically speaking, is a pit of violence and corruption by its members and officers," the group said.
The Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) is a college program designed to train civilians in the rudiments of military service in order to produce capable Armed Forces of the Philippines reservists.
It was made optional in 2002 following the death of Mark Chua, a University of Sto. Tomas Student. He was allegedly slain by course officers after exposing the corruption in the university’s ROTC program.