The House Committee on Basic Education and Culture has uncovered further irregularities in the Senior High School (SHS) Voucher Program, revealing that thousands of students listed as beneficiaries had no records of enrollment or attendance. Lawmakers questioned Department of Education (DepEd) officials about how these discrepancies went unnoticed for years.

Committee Chairperson Roman Romulo pressed DepEd Director Atty. Tara Rama on the findings from recent validation efforts. Rama confirmed that 55 schools had been removed from the program after the Private Education Assistance Committee (PEAC) found that many students listed in billing statements as beneficiaries did not appear in school records or class registries.

“This is what you call alleged ghosts, right? This would fall under that,” Romulo said. “The reason is that even though a school submitted a billing statement to DepEd, when PEAC physically checked, they found that students included in the list were not actually attending that school. Correct?”

"That is correct, based on their records," Rama confirmed.

When asked how many schools were involved, Rama could not provide an exact number but cited school year 2021-2022, where 3,370 students across 22 schools were listed under the voucher program. While not all of these cases involved non-existent students, the findings raised concerns about the extent of discrepancies within the system.

‘Tip of the iceberg’

Romulo pointed out that PEAC was only able to audit 10 percent of all participating schools that year, meaning the actual number of students with questionable records could be significantly higher.

“If this is just the 10 percent they checked, what about the remaining 90 percent? This could just be the tip of the iceberg,” Romulo warned.

The issue dates back to the implementation of the SHS voucher program in 2016. Previously, private schools had to secure accreditation before receiving government subsidies, a process that could take up to five years. However, with the transition to the K-12 system, these strict accreditation measures were not applied to SHS vouchers.

Romulo questioned why DepEd allowed unaccredited private schools to participate in the program when the system was first introduced.

“So effectively, the schools that received SHS vouchers starting in 2016 were not even recognized under the SHS program,” he said.

Rama acknowledged this, explaining that DepEd had no choice but to allow private schools to participate even without formal recognition because public schools were not prepared to absorb the influx of students moving up to SHS. The department lacked the classrooms and teachers needed to accommodate all graduates from junior high school.

Romulo, however, saw this as a major oversight.

"There was already an admission from DepEd that from 2013 to 2016, they were not prepared to receive the number of students finishing fourth-year high school. That’s why they turned to private schools," he said.

Discrepancies

The probe also revealed deeper issues beyond missing student records. Rama disclosed that in one school, 98 percent of listed voucher beneficiaries were flagged as questionable. A review of DepEd’s Learners Information System (LIS) showed that many of these students were actually enrolled in public schools.

DepEd reported that 13,109 students from 1,347 flagged schools were part of questionable cases.

“We admit that DepEd had lapses in the past,” she said. “But starting in 2023, we have improved the validation and evaluation process for participating schools.”

However, this response did not sit well with Representative France Castro, who rejected the notion that DepEd’s lack of manpower was an excuse.

"Not having enough people is not a valid reason," Castro said.

Rod Malonzo, head of PEAC’s monitoring and processing unit, said their goal for the next school year is to validate 100 percent of voucher beneficiaries to ensure that only properly enrolled students receive funding.

Romulo questioned why DepEd’s LIS system, which had been in place before 2016, was not used for full validation from the start.

Malonzo admitted that previous issues with the LIS included students being assigned multiple Learner Reference Numbers, allowing them to appear enrolled in more than one school. These issues had been flagged since 2016, but only in recent years had stricter validation measures been implemented.

The loose regulations surrounding the SHS voucher program were further highlighted during the hearing.

Ricardo Victorio, president of the Federation of Associations of Private Schools & Administrators (FAPSA), recalled that in 2015, private schools could simply submit a Letter of Intent (LOI) to be included in the program.

"It was very easy to open a senior high school back then. You just had to submit an LOI," he said.

Romulo was visibly taken aback.

"That’s it? You could start a senior high school just by submitting a Letter of Intent? That’s unbelievable."

As the hearing concluded, Romulo called for immediate reforms to prevent further misuse of the voucher system. He stressed the need for DepEd to strengthen its accreditation process, fully integrate LIS into validation efforts, and increase physical monitoring to supplement PEAC’s work.

With 1.2 million students currently covered by the voucher system and 4,415 private schools participating in the 2024-2025 school year, lawmakers urged DepEd to restore credibility to the program, which was meant to expand access to quality education but has instead raised serious concerns over transparency and accountability.