VP Duterte: Mercado ‘disgruntled’ ex-employee who solicited P16M

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte on Wednesday claimed that Gloria Jumamil Mercado is a “disgruntled” former undersecretary of the Department of Education (DepEd) who was “let go” after soliciting P16 million from a private company.

Earlier on Wednesday, Mercado faced the House committee on good government and public accountability and claimed that she was asked to resign by Duterte’s chief-of-staff after she raised several concerns regarding the procurement for the DepEd’s computerization program.

READ: VP Duterte’s chief of staff allegedly asked DepEd exec to resign

Duterte disputed this.

“Gloria Mercado is a disgruntled former employee of the Department of Education. She was let go because of loss of trust and confidence sa (in the) Office of the [Education] Secretary,” said Duterte in a press conference on Wednesday afternoon.

“Una niyang ginawa nag-solicit siya ng P16 million sa isang kompanya on paper using my name without any authorization from the Department of Education,” she added.

(She solicited P16M from a company on paper using my name without any authorization from the Department of Education.)

Duterte also said Mercado, despite being the DepEd undersecretary for Human Resources and Organizational Development, took a teacher from Region 7 and assigned them to the central office as her executive assistant.

“HR pa mismo ang gumawa ng injustice sa teachers namin sa field, so on that second point hindi ko na pinalampas,” she added.

(HR itself did injustice to our teachers in the field, so at the second point, I had enough.)

It was at this point that Duterte said they informed Mercado that she had lost the trust and confidence of DepEd.

However, Duterte said they allowed Mercado to retire due to her age instead of firing her.

“So she’s a disgruntled former DepEd employee. ‘Yan ang dalawa na rason kung bakit siya pinaalis (those are the two reasons why we let her go,” the Vice President claimed.