WE ARE NOT ON WAR FOOTING

 Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Delfin Lorenzana is not sold to the proposal of presidential daughter Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte to make military service mandatory for Filipinos.

 Lorenzana said the proposal is not only hard to implement.

The country is also not on “war footing,” Lorenzana said.

Earlier. Sara who is running for vice president in the May polls, said that if she wins she will ask Congress to pass a law making military service mandatory  for all Filipinos once they turn 18 years old. 

Lorenzana said Implementing mandatory service would require additional funds.

“Training camps would need to be established all over the land, and manpower and funds must be allocated to accommodate the millions who will reach the age of 18 every year,” the defense secretary said.

Lorenzana said the existing Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program mandatory is still the “better alternative.” 

“We in the DND support the mandatory military service of 18-year-old Filipinos… The implementation of mandatory ROTC in private and public schools is the better alternative,” Lorenzana said.