The University of the Philippines ROTC Unit is one the pioneers of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps in the Philippines. One of the brainchild of Field Marshall Douglas MacArthur, the conception of the very first citizen army was made through the creation of Commonwealth Act No. 1, also known as the “National Defense Act”. With the activation of the UP ROTC Unit, several State and Private Universities-Colleges soon followed, activating various ROTC units under the Army of the Philippine Commonwealth.
Organizational & Command Structure
The UP ROTC Unit is an organization that actually has two faces: a military organization and an academic unit. It is, in itself, a military unit under the National Capital Region Regional Community Defense Group (NCRRCDG), while it is an academic unit within the UP Community, a special unit reporting directly to the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs (not passing through college-level units).
Because of this, the ROTC unit has dual set of responsibilities – as a military training unit which trains cadets and trainees for the reserve force, and as a department of the University which teaches students. While this maybe the same (since the cadets are the students), the very concept of two “masters” sometimes makes reporting and functioning of responsibilities challenging if not outright conflicting.
Levels and Organizations
There are three main levels in the chain of command in ROTC. These are the following:
Headquarters or University Level – This is the level that is immediately above the ROTC Unit or the DMST. On these level are
- the NCR RCDG and UP Administration.
- Unit Level – This is the level of the ROTC Unit or the DMST.
- Corps Level – This level is the level of the Corps of Cadets and Sponsors.
The main organizational units in defining the organization and chain of command of the ROTC unit are the following:
- UP Administration (via Office of Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, or OVCAA)
- NCR RCDG (through 1302nd Community Defense Center)
- The Department of the Military Science and Tactics
- The Tactical Group
- The Corps of Cadets and Corps of Sponsors