Why PH should revive the Reserve Officers' Training Corps

If I can do the Citizens’ Army Training (CAT) all over again, I will. It’s not because it made me more nationalistic. It’s not because I find the marching drills useful to this day. I’ll relive CAT if given the chance because if you can survive through all the drama, ego tripping, and small-mindedness that will most likely come with it, then you’ve laid the foundation of your success in the workplace.

The CAT was a high school subject about military science. When I was 16, senior high school students all over the Philippines assembled weekly in fields, quadrangles, and basketball courts to do marching exercises as they wielded their fake swords and dummy rifles for the CAT. In the sweltering heat, we did push-ups, twirled rifles, did sword-tricks, yelled at our fellow cadets, and got yelled at by the higher-ranking officers.

For what? To this day, I have no idea. I still don’t see how dazzling China with our footwork will win us any battle should they attack.

Class Magiting

I trained to become a CAT officer under the Cadet Officer Candidate Course (COCC). The COCC commenced every second semester of third year high school, if I remember correctly. On many weekdays and Saturdays, my grandpa drove me to campus at 5 AM because the training started at 5:30 AM. A lot of the training sessions lasted until late at night.

In college, I often got laughed at when I told my schoolmates that I was once a CAT officer. How could’ve I possibly survived the COCC given my petite 5-feet physical frame, lack of athletic ability, and absent-mindedness? Yet I really was an officer — a deputy corps commander, which was the second to the highest rank.

I opted to undergo the COCC because I thought it would prepare me for the mandatory Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program in college. I also didn’t want to endure the constant nagging of why an honor student like me wasn’t an officer. Most importantly, I didn’t want to be on the receiving end of the other teenagers’ ego tripping if they considered me to be a lowly ordinary cadet.

My suspicions were proven right: the CAT did become a venue for everyone to stroke their egos. One of our training officers even did an extemporaneous speech in front of us COCC cadets. We were in our formation, with each cadet in tikas position under the moonlight, when that officer started waxing poetically about their life.

“For many years, I thought I was never good enough”, they said. “I wasn’t part of the cream section. I’m not an honor student. I’ll never be popular!” Meanwhile, there I was, thinking how everything that was taking place would make such an awesome plot for the fanfiction I was cooking up in my mind.

“But then,” the training officer interrupts my thoughts, “the CAT gave me a chance TO PROVE MYSELF.” They then gave us the old miserere about their pains during their COCC and told us that we too must prove our worth in the CAT.

Much of the CAT really became about ourselves. Some competed for higher ranks to impress girls, while some egos were easily bruised over trivial matters. So much unnecessary drama ensued.

Cdte. Lt. Col. Sanchez

As for me, I suspect that I became the deputy corps commander so I wouldn’t mess up anyone’s marching. All I was expected to do was to substitute for the corps commander when he wasn’t around, and serve as the de-facto aide-de-camp to him and the commandant. Yes, I was a glorified assistant!

That was quite a sweet deal, actually. Everyone saluted me, and I only answered to the commandant, his fellow soldiers, and the corps commander. Nobody dared to be a smart aleck with me lest I force them to do 10,000 push-ups! Besides, I had a lot of spare time to daydream about all sorts of manga characters that I could write based on the CAT after I had carried out my chores.

It all turned out well in the end. We had a parade for our CAT graduation and my parents watched our military drills from the stands. My mom said that I was great during the presentation. It must’ve been true because she’s a tiger mother: she’ll tell you that you suck if you’re mediocre. Most importantly, I was happy that I got what I wanted from the CAT, which was to dodge bullying from any officer. When I got to college though, the ROTC became optional so I didn’t go through it anymore.

Stoicism as a Skill

Now that there’s a push to revive the ROTC and bring it to the high school level, some are concerned that it might give rise to bullying, or even hazing, without equipping students for actual combat.

I agree with making reformed military training mandatory for students. With the proper safeguards, the skills and virtues that the youth can acquire from it will outweigh all of the risks. Even under the obsolete CAT curriculum, I learned to exhibit forbearance when I didn’t see the point of what I was being told to do. Military training also disciplined me into staying stoic and respectful even when people were power tripping — a very important life skill!

Most work establishments all over the world are so full of egomaniacs and pointless tasks that it can be tempting to lose your temper. I know brilliant people with very low tolerance for much of the nonsense that went on in their companies. They especially hated if they had to take orders from colleagues they deemed inferior.

Instead of keeping their heads down and focusing on what they could control, they threw tantrums which only exacerbated their workplaces’ toxicity. Their ideas didn’t materialize at work because their colleagues hated them. A couple of them even got blacklisted.

So even just for teaching stoicism, I’ll support a reformed ROTC. And I’ll be interested to volunteer as a consultant if the Philippines will ever come up with its own version of Ro’im Rachok for students with disabilities.

(Photo by Timon Studler)