By PNA and U.S. News Agency / Asian

As the nation celebrates “National Reservist Week,” Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said Saturday the government eyes increasing the number of reservists in the military to one million personnel.

This is 800,000 more than the 200,000 under the military’s roster.

“Our ambition is to increase this to one million, as the latter figure is very small, that’s part of the overall plan,” the DND chief stressed.

He is hopeful the increase will done within the next three years.

Gazmin said that more reservists are needed as they have valuable roles to play in disaster response and alleviation.

“They are the backbone of our disaster response efforts as they are always on call,” the DND chief said.