THE UP Vanguard Inc. decried the support of some senators to calls to scrap the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps bill because of the hazing death of John Matthew Salilig.

“The death of a student due to hazing and the passage of mandatory ROTC at the college level are not related. There is absolutely no connection whatsoever. The Tau Gamma Phi is not even involved in the administration of ROTC,” said Guido Alfredo Delgado, national commander of the UP Vanguard Inc.

UP Vanguard is an alumni association of advanced ROTC graduates from the University of the Philippines.

The group is a proponent of the return of ROTC as a mandatory requirement in college to bolster the defense and disaster relief capabilities of the country.

“The Senate bills being considered are already replete with safeguards to ensure ROTC cadets and cadet officers are safe. This is also why we are pushing that the ROTC program be devolved away from the AFP to be under a government agency purely looking after the ROTC program of instruction and its execution, so there is a total overhaul in the ROTC program focusing on practical applications including disaster management,” Delgado said.

The UP Vanguard Inc. has proposed that ROTC be managed by a commission, which will oversee training for deployment during emergencies and contingencies.