AS the senate subcommittee on Revitalized Reserve Officers Training Corps commenced its committee hearings Wednesday to tackle various senate bills as well as House Bill 6687 meant to revive the controversial civil-military training program, a youth group has labeled it as “exclusionary” this after the subcommittee as well as its counterpart in the lower House failed to hold public consultations or include the youth in its hearings.
But Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan (Spark), an activist youth organization, slammed both the Senate and the House for failing to consider the input of the youth, or the Filipino masses in general, in drafting and revising the bills.
“To date, there were about 27 House bills and six Senate bills that pertain to NSTC or ROTC, and none of them have involved public hearings or consultations of any kind,” John Lazaro, Spark National Coordinator, stressed.
“This week’s hearings are going to be small-group discussions of dozens of out-of-touch boomer senators making decisions about the lives and safety of millions of Filipino students. No amount of circumvention of procedures will make this bill more agreeable,” he added.
Spark claimed that it was absurd that the bills on NSTC and ROTC, which directly affected stakeholders, were crafted with zero consultation from any youth or student groups.
“Congress is basically bulldozing houses without talking to the residents,” Lazaro explained.
“An invitation to a representative from the Kabataan Partylist, or a president of a student council, or even any ordinary senior high school student, is surely a no-brainer for any senator with a grain of sense,” he explained.
But Lazaro further questioned why there were no public hearings at all, considering how more sectors than just the youth would be affected.
“On top of the pointless danger NSTC and ROTC put the youth in, it is these students’ families who would have to shoulder the costs of NSTC or ROTC program on top of an unhindered increase of retail prices of prime commodities and stagnated wages rates,” he stated.
Ultimately, the group demanded greater public participation in the deliberations on the proposed bills.
“The bills have only had swift passage through the chambers of Congress so far because no one has been around to question them,” Lazaro said.
“Once the actual stakeholders in NSTC and ROTC are included, we will waste no time in exposing the proposals for the expensive, unnecessary, anti-student shams they are,” he concluded. (Spark)
