Senate President Francis Escudero said Thursday that the Mandatory Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) bill would be “tough” to pass, given the P27 billion budget it requires.

In a press briefing, Escudero said that Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, Jr. told him that '' more than P8 billion a year'' was needed for its implementation.

“ And to fully implement this within three years, we need more or less P27 billion,” Escudero said.

“Right now it will be tough. That’s as far as I can say. Especially given the other expenditures the government needs to allocate funds for in the coming year, given even the elections,” he added.

Escudero said the P27 billion could be used to fund other government expenses, like programs under the Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Education (DepEd).

He said the Department of National Defense (DND) recommended not to automatically include those who participate in the ROTC in the reserve forces since they would not be able to absorb them, noting that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) still had backlogs from those applying to become reservists under the National Service Training Program. (NSTP).

Escudero said the Mandatory ROTC bill, one of the priority measures of Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC), could possibly be passed before the end of the year or before Congress ends next year. Jaspearl Tan/DMS