Image: Instagram/@robinhoodpadilla
Action star Robin Padilla seems to be following the footsteps of actor Matteo Guidicelli, who joined the Philippine Army as a reservist last April.
Padilla made the announcement in support of Senate Bill No. 2232, which makes the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) mandatory for senior high school students. President Rodrigo Duterte certified the bill as urgent on Monday, June 3.
“Mga kabataang Pilipino sasamahan ko kayo mula umpisa hanggang sa huli,” Padilla said via Instagram on June 3. “Papasok ako sa Philippine Army Reserve para sa inyo upang masundan ko ang bawat ninyong hakbang tungo sa kabayanihan. San man tayo makarating hindi ko kayo pababayaan!”
(To the Filipino youth, I will join you from beginning to end. I will enter the Philippine Army Reserve for you so I would be able to follow your every step toward heroism. I won’t forsake you wherever we may end up).
He also assured the youths that they would not be abandoned by the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Duterte.
“Hindi tayo iiwan ng AFP at ni Mayor PRRD mga mahal na kabataan kayat tayoy tumindig at bumangon ng nakataas ang dibdib at nakataas ang mga Noo Para sa Dios! Para sa Inangbayan! Para sa Kapwa Pilipino!”
(The AFP and Mayor PRRD won’t abandon us, so let us stand with pride, with our heads held high for God, country and our fellow countrymen.)
Padilla has openly supported the idea of a mandatory ROTC in November 2018, saying it is the Filipinos’ duty to guard the country’s sovereignty, whatever this undertaking may call for.
Senator Risa Hontiveros, however, is not agreeable to a mandatory ROTC and expressed her concern last month that it could be in violation of international law.
The opposition senator reasoned that most students enrolled in Grade 11 and 12 are 16- to 17-year-olds, minors, and are not “compulsorily recruited into the armed forces.” Hontiveros said the ROTC program should instead “remain optional” for students. /ra
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