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LIVE: Senate higher education panel holds hearing on mandatory ROTC, 20 other bills

September 7, 2022 | 10:16am

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate Committee on Higher Education is set to hold its first organizational meeting presided by Sen. Chiz Escudero.

On the agenda are the proposed amendment to the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act and 20 other education-related bills.

Most notably, the Senate committees are expected to touch on proposals to make the controversial Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) mandatory in schools along with the closure of the Colegio De San Lorenzo in Quezon City.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in his first State of the Nation Address called on Congress to pass a law that would make ROTC mandatory in senior high school.

Commission on Higher Education chairman J. Prospero de Vera III, who is invited to the hearing, has since expressed “100%” support for Marcos’ call to make ROTC mandatory in Grades 11 and 12.

Other Senate committees at the hearing are:

Committee on Civil Service and Government Reorganization and Professional Regulation;
Committee on Public Works;
Committee on Banks, Financial Institutions and Currencies;
Committee on Basic Education;
Committee on Labor, Employment and Human Resources Development;
Committee on National Defense and Security, Peace, Unification and Reconciliation;
Committee on Science and Technology;
Committee on Agriculture, Food and Agrarian Reform;
Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs;
Committee on Urban Planning, Housing and Resettlement;
Committee on Ways and Means

The bills expected to be tackled include:

S. Nos. 29 and 279 - Amending R.A. No. 10931 (Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act)
S. No. 6 - Technical Education Training and Certification Act
S. No. 251 - Priority Infrastructure for State Universities and Colleges Act
S. No. 274 - College Living Expenses Financing (CLEF) Act
S. No. 11 - Education Roadmap Act
S. No. 363 - Enterprise-Based Education and Training to Employment Act
S. No. 364 - Lifelong Learning Development Framework (LLDF) Act
S. No. 468 - Revitalized Reserve Officers Training Corps Act
P.S. Res. No. 15 - Status of the Implementation of R.A. No. 10968 (Philippine Qualifications Framework Act)
P.S. Res. No. 156 - Closure of the Colegio De San Lorenzo in Quezon City
S. Nos. 507, 524 and 787 - Anti-No Permit, No Exam Act
S. No. 630 - Entrepreneurial Agriculture Education Act
S. No. 845 - Agriculture Education Act
S. No. 613 - Bukidnon State University
S. No. 508 – National Institute for Science and Mathematics Education Development (NISMED) Act
S. No. 676 – Revised Higher Education Act
S. No. 694 – Forensic Science Institute Act
S. No. 716 – Foreign Language Education Act
S. No. 736 – Free Health Card for All State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) Personnel Act
S. No. 737 – Institutionalizing the 1989 University of the Philippines – Department of National Defense Accord
S. No. 742 – State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) Tenured Personnel Housing Act