Senator Sherwin Gatchalian on Thursday, February 29 called on the Department of Education (DepEd) to fix the anomalies in the Educational Service Contracting (ESC) program noting that the majority of the beneficiaries come from non-poor households.

Gatchalian described the granting of slot allocations of the ESC beneficiaries to students who are non-poor “the height of injustice.”

According to the senator, 68 percent of ESC recipients were from non-poor households or those whose incomes are above or equal to the per capita threshold. 

This was based on the senator’s office analyzed date from the Annual Poverty Indicators Survey (APIS) 2020 and 2022 for School Year 2020-2021. For School Year 2019-2020, 59 percent were from non-poor households.

“To me this is the height of injustice. Humihingi tayo ng pondo, binibigay natin sa hindi mahihirap (we are asking for funds, we give it but not to the poor),” Gatchalian lamented during a hearing on the implementation of the ‘Expanded Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education Act’ (Republic Act No. 8545) or the e-GASTPE law.

“And as taxpayers, we’re subsidizing the non-poor,” he pointed out, adding that based on higher end estimates from the senator’s office, the leakage from the ESC program amounts to P8.6 billion.

“The spirit of the law is already giving priority to the poorest of the poor. And I think it’s embedded in all of us. We all know that resources are scarce, we all know that during budget season, we fight for resources, and from the meager resources that we get, the allocation should be prioritizing the poor,” the senator stressed.

The ESC is a partnership program of the Department of Education (DepEd) that seeks to decongest overcrowded public junior high schools. 

Under the ESC, the government, shoulders the tuition and other fees of excess students in public schools who enter private schools contracted by the DepEd.

Gatchalian also said the figures obtained by his office reflect the findings of the Commission on Audit (COA) in 2018. 

In a Performance Audit Report, state auditors recommended that the DepEd should ensure that the GATSPE prioritize underprivileged learners. The ESC is a program under GASTPE.

Tara Rama, Director III from the DepEd’s Government Assistance and Subsidies Office (GASO), confirmed during the hearing that the 2017 ESC guidelines do not strictly mandate prioritization of the poor. 

Now, GASO, Rama said, is taking the lead in revising the ESC guidelines.

For his part, Gatchalian said he will consider amendments to the e-GASTPE law, and recommending the prioritization of the poor in government subsidy programs to private school learners.