The Private Education Assistance Committee (PEAC) notified the Department of Education (DepEd) about alleged irregularities in the Senior High School (SHS) voucher program as early as 2016, the same year the K-12 program was officially institutionalized, a PEAC official said Wednesday.

PEAC Monitoring and Processing Unit Head Rod Malonzo told the House Committee on Basic Education and Culture that they first flagged issues with the Learners Information System (LIS), which records the names of all student enrollees in both private and public schools from kindergarten to senior high school.

Malonzo said a review of the LIS later revealed that some students had multiple Learner Reference Numbers (LRNs) and were enrolled in multiple schools.

However, he clarified that these concerns were immediately reported to DepEd in 2016.

"We have been connected to LIS since the start of SHS in 2016. However, there have been issues with the LIS before. Like for example, in 2016, there were some students who had several learner reference numbers," Malonzo told the panel.

"There are also issues with the billing because sometimes we see in the LIS that the student is enrolled in multiple schools—one to two schools," he added.

The issue only came to the surface after committee chairperson, Pasig Rep. Roman Romulo, pressed the DepEd and PEAC about the deficiencies in the reinforcement of the SHS voucher program, which resulted in government funds being lost to ghost or non-existent losing resources due to ghost or non-existent students listed as its beneficiaries.

Romulo argued that both DepEd and PEAC share responsibility for the lapses since PEAC failed to push for stronger action despite the issue being a significant “red flag.”

The Enhanced Basic Education Act (RA 10533), which institutionalized K-12, was enacted in 2013. Three years later, the program took effect in School Year (SY) 2016-2017, despite opposition from parents, teachers, and stakeholders.

The SHS voucher program provides financial assistance to qualified senior high school students who wish to enroll in private SHS or non-DepEd schools.

The subsidy is part of the government’s effort to decongest public schools after the implementation of K-12 in 2016, when there was a shortage of school buildings and facilities to accommodate SHS learners.

For SY 2025-2026, a P40 billion budget was allocated for the voucher program, with P27 billion designated for SHS vouchers, P12 billion for Educational Service Contracting (ESC) for junior high school students, and P1 billion for the Joint Delivery Voucher Program.

The budget allocated for the SHS voucher program has been steady at P27 billion since last year.

Currently, 55 private schools have been removed as DepEd partners under the SHS voucher program following the discovery of “ghost” students.

"The PEAC when they conducted physical monitoring of the schools, Mr. Chair, they found out that some of the learners who were listed in the billing statement as beneficiaries do not have a record of class participation, enrollment, or even attendance," said DepEd Government Assistance and Subsidies Office Director Atty. Tara Rama, explaining that this was among the various reasons why the contracts of the private schools had been terminated.

According to Rama, there were 3,370 students under the SHS voucher program in SY 2021-2022 alone.

Romulo remains adamant that these irregularities may only be the tip of the iceberg, as PEAC was only able to audit 10 percent of the accredited private schools, leaving a staggering 90 percent unchecked. 

"Again, I wish we had done this sooner. We could have avoided hearings like this because the issuance [of vouchers] or the allegedly discovered [ghost beneficiaries] by DepEd would not have happened," the chairman stressed.

Rama confirmed that DepEd is considering filing criminal charges against the perpetrators and private schools involved.

The controversy over “ghost” students was first brought to light in a Commission on Audit (COA) report.

Findings revealed that in SY 2016-2017, there were 115 “ghost students” listed as beneficiaries under the SHS voucher program, who were billed multiple times.

During a Senate hearing last year, lawmakers discovered that the number of undocumented beneficiaries had jumped to 19,000, prompting an in-depth investigation.