ROTC History

• 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.
• ROTC in the Philippines began in 1912 when the Philippine Constabulary commenced with military instruction at the University of the Philippines
• In 1936, the Office of the Superintendent for ROTC Units under the Philippine Army was activated to supervise all ROTC units in the country.
• President Manuel L. Quezon issued Executive Order No. 207 in 1939 in order to implement the National Defense Act of 1935, otherwise known as Commonwealth Act No. 1
• Elements from different ROTC units in Metro Manila took part in the Battle of Bataan.
• Various ROTC units joined volunteers from the Philippine Military Academy to form the Hunters ROTC guerrilla group, which took part in the resistance movement during the Japanese occupation after the last American and Filipino forces had surrendered.
• On September 13, 1946, the Philippine Army Headquarters reactivated the pre-war ROTC units.
• On February 8, 1967, President Ferdinand Marcos rescinded Executive Order No. 207 of 1939, promulgating Executive Order No. 59 in its place.
• Republic Act 7077, otherwise known as the "Citizen Armed Forces of the Philippines Reservist Act", was enacted by the 8th Congress of the Philippines on June 27, 1991.
• Republic Act 9163, otherwise known as the "National Service Training Program (NSTP) Act of 2001", was Congress' answer to the clamor for change in the ROTC program.
• the ROTC program has undergone numerous unacknowledged name changes, like in the 1960s through the mid-1970s it was called "Philippine Military Training" or PMT,
• from the late 1970s up to the early 1990s it was called "Citizen Military Training" or CMT,
• also advance training did not begin until the mid-1970s when cadets who desired to be cadet officers underwent what was called "Cadet Officers Candidate Course" or COCC.
• Currently, ROTC is an optional program element of the NSTP rather than a requirement for college students. Cadets in the ROTC program can be male or female
• The number of students enrolling in ROTC has significantly decreased, based on the most recent data available. The number of cadets enrolled in ROTC decreased to 150,000 as of 2011 from over 800,000 in the 1999–2000 academic year
• ●There were 500 colleges and universities taking part in the ROTC program in the first quarter of 2011. Compared to the 2,000 schools that offered ROTC prior to the National Service Training Program's implementation, there has been a significant drop.
• ROTC units in colleges and universities are organized through the Department of Military Science and Tactics (DMST) which is under joint supervision by the school administration and the Department of National Defense.
• Through this arrangement, the first official ROTC unit in the Philippines was established in the University of the Philippines on July 3, 1922.