The Department of Education has filed criminal complaints against seven private schools for allegedly having “ghost beneficiaries” in its senior high school voucher program.
“Ghost” students refers to learners who were given vouchers to enroll in private schools who may have turned out to be unqualified for the program or did not exist at all.
During the DepEd’s budget briefing before the House Committee on Appropriations on Wednesday, Education Secretary Sonny Angara said the complaints involved nearly P70 million.
“The complaints have been filed at the prosecutor’s office. And we have sent out demand letters. There are criminal cases over a total amount of P62.9 million,” Angara said.
He said the DepEd’s legal department has pending investigations into schools with similar cases.
At a Senate hearing last year, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said that more than 19,000 “ghost” or undocumented students were benefitting from the voucher program, citing the 2016 and 2018 reports from the Commission on Audit (COA).
Last March, the Department of Education said it had terminated the participation of 55 schools in its senior high school voucher program amid allegations of “ghost students.”
DepEd Government Assistance and Subsidies Service Project Manager III Atty. Tara Rama made the revelation during a briefing of the House Committee on Basic Education and Culture.
Rama was asked by Kabataan Party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel on the exact figure of alleged “ghost students” under the voucher program.
“For that specific number, I cannot give the exact figure because there are four categories of so-called ghost students. And at the same time, though we already had a number of schools that were terminated, starting in February 2023, those schools had different findings,” Rama said.
“There are different amounts involved and different numbers of students. We can provide you with the exact number later. But currently that is the situation, and at the same time we still have ongoing investigations,” she added.
Rama said the schools were terminated due to various reasons, not just students who had no class records or class attendance, but also “unqualified” voucher recipients.
“We started terminating 22 schools for school year 2021-2022. In February 2023, we terminated another 32 schools for school year 2022-2023. For 2023-2024, we already have one school terminated. Another 12 are currently under investigation,” she revealed.
Rama said they are looking into filing criminal cases against erring schools.
She explained that alleged “ghost students” may fall into four categories: a significant number of absent students during monitoring; beneficiaries billed under a specific school or campus but who attended another school or campus; students listed as enrolled but who have not attended classes since the start of the semester; and students billed multiple times in the same schools or in different participating schools.
