A lawmaker on Wednesday, March 19, slammed the Department of Education (DepEd)'s move of terminating its partnership with private schools that were found to have "ghost students" under its voucher program, since this could affect even legitimate student-beneficiaries.

1-Rider Party-list Rep. Bonifacio Bosita asked during a public hearing why legitimate beneficiaries of DepEd's senior high school (SHS) voucher program have to be sacrificed if it was actually the school's violation to claim that they still had students who were either no longer enrolled at their facility or were non-existent.

To recall, DepEd perpetually terminated its partnership with at least 55 schools after it found out hat some or most of the students they declared to be beneficiaries of the voucher program were actually ghost students.

Such a move concerned House lawmakers because poor and deserving students could also be affected if their assistance would be cut.

"Kung may personnel from the school na may mali dito, ma-sacrifice yung the whole school and the students na pwedeng mag-avail ng program (If it's only a school personnel who's at fault, the entire school or the student-beneficiaries will end up being sacrificed)," Bosita said.

"Dapat sana kung may problema, may mali, dapat ang accountable, dapat ang liable kung sino talaga, not the entire school and the students doon sa locality (We should hold accountable those who really committed  the violation—not the entire school or the students in the locality)," he added.

House Committee on Basic Education and Culture Chairman and Pasig lone district Rep. Roman Romulo agreed.

"Sa lahat ng na-discover niyo, kasi yung point ni Hon. Bosita, parang napaisip ako, meron bang instance na may school na nag-stop payment kayo (Based on what you discovered and based on what Rep. Bosita said, I really pondered. Was there an instance that you stopped paying to a certain school)?" he asked.

Lawyer Tara Rama of DepEd's programs management office said legitimate student-beneficiaries do not necessarily have to be sacrificed because DepEd still pays for them.

"Yung mga...pumapasok naman po na voucher beneficiaries, pinapatapos po natin yan ang grade 12. Binabayaran pa rin po natin yan (Those who are voucher beneficiaries, we  let them finish Grade 12. We still pay for them)," she said.

"Ang termination lang po ng school na yun ay mag-sastart na po ng Grade 11, meaning they cannot accept Grade 11 na mga voucher beneficiaries (The termination of our partnership only starts for Grade 11 students who are yet to be accepted by erring private schools. They can no longer accept them)," she added.