FORTY-TWO percent of adult Filipinos said that Reserved Officers Training Corps program should only be optional for students, a survey by Social Weather Stations showed Thursday.

The same survey also found that 35 percent think that ROTC should be compulsory in senior high school while 22 percent believe that it should not be in the curriculum at all.

“Forty-two percent of adult Filipinos say ROTC should be optional where one can choose this as a course or choose community service. Pluralities in all areas share this view except in the Visayas,” the pollster said.

The survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews with 1,200 respondents nationwide. It was done from March 26 to 29 and has a sampling error of ±2.8%.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. earlier proposed the reconstitution of the ROTC and National Service Training Program for Grade 11 and 12 students as one of the priority measures of his administration.

Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa refiled the mandatory ROTC bill in the 19th Congress. However, several groups have opposed the measure.

The mandatory ROTC program was scrapped in 2002 following the passage of Republic Act 9163, an act establishing the NSTP.