(NI NOEL ABUEL)

WALANG aasahan na matutuloy ang implementasyon ng mandatory Reserved Officers Training Corps (ROTC) para sa mga estudyanteng papasok sa Grade 11 at Grade 12 sa mga pampubliko at pribadong senior high school.

Ito ay matapos na mabigong maihabol ng Senado sa pagtatapos ng 17th Congress ang nasabing panukala.

Sinabi ni Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri na kinulang ang Senado ng sapat na oras para dumaan sa deliberasyon ang mga panukalang batas na kabilang sa tinukoy na certify ni Pangulong Rodrigo Duterte.

“I know we are in receipt of several bills certified as priority. Three of them in particular are the amendments to the Public Services Act, the Foreign Investments Act, and the ROTC. These measures would take a lot of hours of debate,” paliwanag pa nito.

“We wish they were able to come out with the priority certifications much earlier to let us be able to plan and study and debate the measures in plenary. Unfortunately, these certifications were only given today, as matter of fact, this afternoon which does not give us enough time to debate on said measures,” dagdag pa nito.

Paliwanag pa ni Zubiri na maraming senador, partikular sa mga miyembro ng minority groups, ang nagpahayag na mag-interpellate sa nasabing mga panukala kung kaya’t hindi dapat ito isaisantabi.

“I’m sure as my conversation with my colleagues in the minority, almost all of them want to interpellate some of these measures. We also have members of the majority who want to interpellate the measures,” sabi nito.