EDUCATION Secretary Sonny Angara yesterday admitted that the department is in dire need of guidance counselors in the face of the spate of violent incidents and cases of bullying in public educational institutions.
Angara told the House committee on appropriations’ hearing on the DepEd’s P928.5 billion proposed budget for 2026 that the department will need a huge budget to fill more than 50,000 vacant positions for guidance counselors, which is based on a ratio of one per 250 students.
The former senator noted that public schools only have 4,069 licensed guidance counselors as of 2022 because the need “cannot be funded overnight.” He said the implementation of the mental health and well-being program will cost over P1 trillion.
To make the situation worse, Angara said there are only 32,000 psychometricians in the country, making it impossible to fill the 50,000 positions because of a “supply problem.”
Just last August 4, a Grade 11 student in Lanao del Sur shot a teacher dead after receiving failing grades, while a nine-year-old Grade 3 student in Northern Mindanao was rushed to a hospital after being mauled by five high school students last August 10.
Last August 7, a 15-year-old female student was shot inside a classroom in Nueva Ecija by an ex-boyfriend, who then shot himself dead. The victim fell into a coma and later died, too.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has already ordered the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to assist in evaluating the implementation of child protection policies in public schools.
Last month, Camarines Sur Rep. Luigi Villafuerte filed a bill seeking to require the deployment of mental health professionals to all public schools and State Universities and Colleges (SUC) following the spate of violent incidents in public educational institutions.
Villafuerte filed House Bill No. 163 or “Mental Health and Digital Wellbeing for Youth Act of 2025” following President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s order to the Department of Education to investigate, along with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), and the Philippine National Police (PNP), the alarming incidents of school-based violence.
The lawmaker said the recent incidents have raised the need to craft legislation to “better help public elementary to tertiary schools deal with mental issues affecting Filipino students.”
‘GHOST BENEFICIARIES’
Angara said the DepEd has filed criminal charges against seven private schools for alleged “ghost beneficiaries” in its Senior High School (SHS) voucher program.
“So, we have criminal cases, with a total amount involved of 61.9 million. We still have a pending investigation with the legal department regarding similar situations,” he told the appropriations panel during the questioning of Bulacan Rep. Salvador Pleyto.
Last February, then Rep. Raul Angelo Bongalon (PL, AKo Bicol) pointed out that the scheme appears to have started as early as 2016 under former President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration and continued under the leadership of Vice President Sara Duterte when she was still concurrent education secretary.
Bongalon cited preliminary findings that suggest that alleged ghost beneficiaries have siphoned millions from the education budget, undermining the SHS voucher program’s original purpose of decongesting public schools and supporting legitimate learners.
The DepEd terminated the participation of 55 schools in the SHS voucher program last March.
