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Cristina Chi - Philstar.com
March 20, 2025 | 2:29pm
MANILA, Philippines — A private school was caught billing the Department of Education for senior high school voucher subsidies despite 98% of its claimed students actually being enrolled in different public schools, an official revealed Wednesday, March 19.
Lawyer Tara Rama, director of DepEd's government assistance and subsidies office, said they caught the school's activities by verifying the learner reference numbers in the DepEd's learner information system.
Rama revealed this in response to a question by House basic education panel chairperson Roman Romulo (Pasig City).
The lawmaker specifically asked: "Sa lahat ng nadiskubre n'yo — mayroon bang instance na may school na nagstop payment kayo dahil based on your check, halos 100% walang estudyante?"
"One school had around 98% that was questionable," Rama said. "The learners when we checked [in the system] was enrolled in different public schools."
This is just one of the more egregious examples of "ghost students" or undocumented beneficiaries that education officials have discovered from DepEd's multi-billion senior high school voucher program.
The voucher program — launched in 2015 — provides subsidies to qualified Grade 11 and 12 students in participating private schools. Rather than giving cash directly to students, DepEd disburses the funds to the schools where the beneficiaries are enrolled.
The House basic education panel held its second hearing on the alleged fraud in the voucher program on Wednesday. During this inquiry, the department said it withheld approximately P200 million in subsidies for around 22,000 "ghost students" in the 2023-2024 school year alone.
Irregularities in the program have been flagged as early as 2016.
Monitoring issues
Rod Malonzo, head of the Private Education Assistance Committee's (PEAC) monitoring and processing unit, told lawmakers that they had been physically monitoring only 10% of beneficiaries in previous years.
Physical monitoring refers to PEAC conducting actual in-person visits to schools to verify if the voucher beneficiaries exist and attend classes.
When asked by Romulo about their full verficiation process, Malonzo explained: "During the processing of billing, we depend on the system if it validates in the [Learner Information System.] Once validated in the [system], the next step is the 10% monitoring."
This approach contributed to the program's vulnerability to fraud. The verification process primarily checked if learner reference numbers existed in the system without confirming if students were actually enrolled in the schools claiming them.
"Before, we had limitations when it comes to validating the enrolled school of a child prior to SY 2024-2025. What we validated before are the LRN and the names of the voucher program beneficiaries," Malonzo said.
DepEd's system flaws
But DepEd's learner information system itself — its main database for storing and tracking students' information — previously had weaknesses that allowed for duplicate entries.
One DepEd official explained: "There was a problem before with the [Learner Information System] where a learner can create multiple [numbers] as they enroll." This technical flaw created opportunities for schools to submit bills for the same student multiple times.
Malonzo said PEAC had flagged the vulnerability as early as 2016. "For example in 2016, some students had several learner reference numbers even if there was just one child... One child with several learner reference numbers."
PEAC also previously noticed how a single student appeared to be enrolled in multiple schools. "Those were the issues in the first years of implementation," Malonzo said.
Vladimer Quetua, chairperson of teachers' group Alliance of Concerned Teachers, expressed concern over the reported system flaw.
"As an adviser for several years, the analyis is correct in that students should only have on learner reference number," Quetua said in Filipino.
"It's sad because there's a Mary Grace Piattos in the [confidential and intelligence funds.] It appears that there is also a Mary Grace Piattos here [through ghost students.]," Quetua added. "The mechanism needs to be reviewed."
Scale of program
Malonzo said that complete verification has been challenging due to the program's scale. "It is difficult for us because there are 1.2 million [beneficiaries]," he said.
Only for the current school year (2024-2025) has PEAC implemented additional checking mechanisms to verify the beneficiaries.
"For the senior high voucher program, we are going to validate 100% of all [voucher program beneficiaries] in SY 2024-2025 if they are still enrolled in the second semester in the LIS," Malonzo said. "We're going to use the system."
Malonzo said for the curren school year, they would not only cross-check each student's reference number "but also if they are enrolled in the school, if the grade level is correct, and if they are qualified to participate in the program."
PEAC, a private entity contracted by DepEd to administer the voucher program, is chaired by the department but primarily consists of members from private schools.
It was PEAC that discovered and recommended the termination of 55 schools from the program due to findings of fraudulent practices, including claiming vouchers for students who weren't actually enrolled there.
Of the 55 schools, 22 were recommended to be removed from the program in school year 2021-2022, 32 schools in 2022-2023, and one school in 2023-2024. Another 12 schools are currently under investigation for 2024-2025.
