MANILA- The Philippine Military Academy was crowned the champion in the first Presidential Silent Drill Competition at the Quirino Grandstand on Friday.

President Rodrigo Duterte led the awarding of P300,000 to the winning PMA platoon which got a score of 96.65 percent.

Watch: Silent drill performance of Philippine Military Academy cadets, winner of the 1st Presidential Silent Drill Competition pic.twitter.com/ldwaqH85Jq

— Pia Gutierrez (@pia_gutierrez) December 20, 2019

The Philippine National Police Academy meanwhile placed second with a score of 95.01 percent and received P200,000.

At third place is the Philippine Merchant Marine Academy which won P100,000 after it got a score of 94.44 percent.

Other participating schools namely the Maritime Academy of Asia and the Pacific, Philippine Air Force Officer Candidate School, Philippine Army Officer Candidate School, and the Philippine Navy Officer Candidate School were awarded P50,000 each.

Friday's competition aimed to boost support for Duterte's bid to revive the mandatory Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) program.

Duterte has repeatedly called for the revival of the mandatory ROTC program, saying it would prepare young Filipinos to defend the Philippines during wartime.

The ROTC, mandatory military training in college, was made optional in 2002 following a controversy that resulted in the death of University of Santo Tomas student Mark Chua.

He was allegedly slain by course officers after exposing fund mismanagement.

The military has lamented that the country's reserve force drastically went down when the National Service Training Program (NSTP) Law was passed in 2001.

At present, ROTC is one of the three components of the NSTP, along with Civic Welfare Training Service (CWTS) and Literacy Training Service (LTS)