THE PRIVATE Education Assistance Committee or PEAC has reported that they recommended the termination of 32 voucher-participating schools from the Educational Service Contracting or ESC scheme.

PEAC Executive Director Doris Ferrer said this is due to various anomalies or non-compliance with the program.

Ferrer added that a total of 12,675 students under the senior high school voucher program and 588 under the ESC with issues, which is equivalent to PHP300 million, have been recorded.

“This year, kaya bumagal ang processing, dahil parehong naghigpit ang PEAC at DepEd. From our end this year, lahat nang mga eskwelahan pinag-submit namin ng documents bago namin tanggapin and billing statements nila just so we can be sure that the students are eligible,” Ferrer said.

Meanwhile, Sen. Raffy Tulfo asked officials of the Commission on Audit whether the Department of Education already ordered the creation of a composite team to monitor the GASTPE program, which stands for Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education.

COA state auditor Erwin Llave, who was a co-team leader during the performance audit of the GASTPE program in 2018, said DepEd had issued several orders for the establishment of various offices in line with GASTPE-related programs but he said COA has yet to evaluate or validate whether these offices are functioning as intended.