MANILA, Philippines Education Secretary Sonny Angara yesterday said that the voucher anomaly involving ghost beneficiaries under the Senior High School Voucher Program has reached P100 million, adding that the Department of Education (DepEd) continues to investigate the scheme.

The money involved is not only P65 million, its bigger. It reached P100 million and our investigation is continuous and we are implementing measures to strengthen the system so that nobody can defraud the government, Angara said during the 2025 Post-SONA Discussions in San Juan.

Angara said the DepEd will go after those involved in the irregularities in the implementation of the voucher program.

We already filed not only civil to recover what we paid, and also criminal (charges) to serve as lesson that our system should not be manipulated as we are talking here about a big amount of money, Angara said.

A cybercrime complaint has been lodged against individuals who tampered with the Learning Information System to include fictitious voucher recipients in a private school in Pasig.

In a separate case in Caloocan, three school officials have also been charged.

It is not right that other institutions do not take seriously our programs for the youth and being played with, Angara added.

Angara noted that the government has already spent nearly P50 billion for the voucher program to support students in private schools.

This (scheme) deprives students who should receive these vouchers as this is for the future of our youth. Almost P50 billion was already allocated for the voucher system for the private schools, he said.

Angara also revealed that the fraudulent activities were carried out in collusion with DepEd insiders who accessed student information.

The DepEd has demanded refunds from 54 private schools flagged for anomalies in voucher program claims for school years 2021 to 2023.

Of the 54 schools removed from the program, 38 have fully refunded the government, two have made partial payments, and 14 have yet to return the funds.

The government has so far recovered about P65 million.

Learning amid calamities

As the effects of climate change continue to disrupt the school calendar, Angara vowed that the DepEd will implement more concrete measures to prevent learning loss caused by repeated class suspensions.

The number of days of learning loss kept on increasing because of climate change. There are many instances where children are at home. Last week, our children stayed at home for the entire week [due to tropical cyclones and the southwest monsoon], he said.

While DepEd has implemented learning modules and worksheets during suspensions, Angara said further action is needed to provide long-term solutions, especially in foundational education.

We have modules, learning sheets (for our students), but at the end of the day, we need to go further and provide actual books to our students, especially because what President Marcos wants is to focus on foundational learning, he said.

Subsidy increase

The government is set to increase the annual subsidy for private school teachers to P24,000 by 2026, up from the current P18,000, in a bid to reduce the widening pay gap with public school teachers and prevent teacher poaching.

The President does not want teachers (in private schools] to be left behind& The salaries of public school (teachers) keep on increasing. They [private schools) cannot compete, thats why the private teachers are being pirated. The President wants a teachers subsidy from P18,000 (to be increased). It will be a reality in the 2026 budget, Angara said.

Earlier, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) criticized President Marcos for his glaring silence on wage hikes for private school educators in his State of the Nation Address (SONA).

Philippine universities earn global ranks

Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairperson Shirley Agrupis reported that 171 Philippine universities have earned global recognition in the World University with Real Impact (WURI) rankings.

As of July 2025, the World University with Real Impact is finished. We call it WURI. At least 171 higher education institutions were recognized already. They are judged by different criteria, innovation, renewable energy and many more, she said.

Agrupis said that CHED is working to boost international standing across the higher education sector through the FLAIR (Filipino Leaders in Advancing International Reputation) program.

One of the legacies of the commission, on top of our mandate to provide accessible, inclusive and quality education, is to increase the level of higher education on the international stage. We have what we call FLAIR... so we conduct international fairs in the different regions to make it inclusive, she said.

CHEDs International Affairs Services is also focused on helping lower-performing schools improve their global competitiveness.

Scholarship

Agrupis also announced the rollout of the Presidential Merit Scholarship that President Marcos mentioned during his fourth SONA.

Aiming to support children who have demonstrated academic excellence, the program will target high school students who have earned the highest honors in their graduating class, regardless of their familys economic background.

It will also target children of middle-salaried Filipinos entering hard-to-fill academic tracks such as health, agriculture, fisheries, digital technologies and artificial intelligence in senior high school.

We are going to target the best of the best in the 12,000 senior high schools in the Philippines, Agrupis said. That will solve and supply the critical mass of the human capital.

Aside from the scholarship, the government is also earmarking P20 billion to support 161,000 college and tech-voc scholars under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program.

The target of the President is every single household who belongs to the poorest of the poor will be able to graduate to Tech/Voc or college, said Agrupis.