The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairperson Shirley C. Agrupis and four other CHED officials have been accused by the Office of the Ombudsman of graft and administrative misconduct in connection with the termination of several degree programs at campuses that are a part of a major private higher education network.
The complaint also names Agrupis's chief of staff and three regional directors who oversee CHED operations nationwide. The complaint accuses them of violating Section 3(e) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act in addition to engaging in serious misconduct, oppression, and actions that are detrimental to the service's best interests.
According to the complaint, CHED issued resolutions in early March 2026 that ordered the closure or phase-out of several degree programs at three network campuses due to non-compliance with faculty, facility, and program administration regulations. The organization in charge of the affected campuses claims that it did not contest the closures. The complaint centers on how CHED handled the public rollout, particularly a number of advisories that were posted on CHED's official website and Facebook pages, directly naming the affected campuses and inviting comments.
The complaint claims that because the campuses operate under a single, well-known brand, the public misinterpreted the advisories as signaling a shutdown of the institution nationwide rather than just a few programs at three of its roughly 150 campuses. Campus administrators in other parts of the network reportedly received anxious calls from students, parents, and partner institutions who believed the entire system was shutting down.
Additionally, the complaint alleges that the institution, through its representative, sent Chairperson Agrupis three separate written appeals between late April and early May 2026, asking CHED to arrange a smooth transition and delay further public dissemination until the matter was settled. Reports state that every letter received a meaningless automated acknowledgment. According to the complaint, CHED re-published the advisories on Facebook with comments enabled in the middle of May despite these requests, aggravating what the organization describes as financial and reputational harm during a critical enrollment period.
The resulting harm, according to the complaint, was serious enough to raise concerns with the institution's bank, attract media attention, and lead to missed enrollment opportunities from which it may be difficult to fully recover.
Beyond how it handled its own case, the complaint claims that CHED has applied its regulatory standards inconsistently. It cites statements made in public by a lawmaker and previous news reports that demonstrate hundreds of teacher education programs nationwide were marked for closure because of their performance on licensing exams, but they did not receive the same prompt, public attention as the campuses at the center of this complaint. The complainant argues that the relative inaction in some cases and the forceful, public action in others are evidence of bias in and of themselves.
In addition to the Ombudsman complaint, the institution has filed other lawsuits. Additionally, it has complained separately to the Anti-Red Tape Authority about CHED's alleged inability to respond to its appeals. It has also filed an injunction case in a Quezon City trial court in an effort to stop the advisories from being distributed going forward and to get ₱20 million in moral damages.
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