"I don't think we'll ever be free of such a problem."
So said Education Secretary Andrew Gonzalez as he admitted yesterday that "ghost" teachers, indeed, exist in public schools.
"Corruption is part of human life. You may cope with it, live with it or minimize it, but to say that you can eliminate it, is naive," he told reporters.
Gonzalez, however, expressed surprise over the claim of Negros Oriental Rep. Herminio Teves that the Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS) could be losing P5 billion annually to these "ghost" teachers.
In a privilege speech Monday, Teves asked DECS to account for 5,839 teachers assigned to non-teaching positions in Central Visayas alone.
"I really don't know where he (Teves) got his information. We don't know how he came up with his figures. But just the same, I already asked our regional officials to check on this," Gonzalez said.
He said that in the history of the country's education, "ghost" teachers have been known to exist, especially in the South.
Ramon Bacani, DECS assistant secretary for planning and human resource development, said Teves might have erred in his figures, probably due to a misinterpretation of DECS records.