AT the outset, let me openly declare that if the mandatory Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) program for senior high school that is being proposed both by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte-Carpio, and which is supported by 69 percent of those surveyed by Pulse Asia, will have the same format and nature as the one I had to endure when I was still a student, then I would vehemently oppose it. If the goal is to use the ROTC as a vehicle to inculcate discipline and love of country, and it will be that same ROTC that made me hate my Saturday mornings, then let me strongly urge our lawmakers and policy framers to rethink hard.