MANILA: The Philippine government will prioritize students from low-income households in its subsidy programs for private schools, according to Senator Sherwin Gatchalian. This initiative is part of the fiscal year 2025 national budget, which includes amendments to the special provision on Government Assistance and Subsidies under the Department of Education (DepEd) budget.

According to Philippines News Agency, the special provision mandates that learners from low-income households will be given priority in the Senior High School Voucher Program (SHS-VP) and the Educational Service Contracting (ESC) Program. Additionally, students from overcrowded public schools will be prioritized in the ESC initiative. Under the ESC program, the government covers tuition and other fees for students in crowded junior public high schools who attend private institutions contracted by the DepEd. The SHS-VP provides subsidies in the form of vouchers to qualified senior high school learners from participating private and non-DepEd schools.

For fiscal year 2025, the government has allocated PHP12.077 billion for the ESC and PHP27.024 billion for the SHS-VP. Senator Gatchalian highlighted that past allocations have not been efficiently targeted, with a significant percentage of beneficiaries coming from non-poor households. In the School Year (SY) 2020-2021, 68 percent of ESC recipients were from non-poor households, and similar trends were observed in previous years. An analysis by Gatchalian's office, using data from the 2020 and 2022 Annual Poverty Indicators Surveys (APIS), estimated a leakage of PHP8.6 billion due to these inefficiencies.

The 2025 budget, signed by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., amounts to PHP6.326 trillion, with PHP1.05 trillion allocated to the education sector under Republic Act 12116. The government aims to ensure that financial assistance reaches the most disadvantaged students, addressing the previous misallocation of resources.