Ex-DepEd procuring head: VP gave me P50,000 monthly

Former Education Undersecretary Gloria Jumamil Mercado. —Photo from the House of Representatives of the Philippines’ Facebook page.

MANILA, Philippines — A former undersecretary and head of the Department of Education’s (DepEd) procurement unit on Wednesday claimed she was given P50,000 monthly from Vice President Sara Duterte supposedly “to influence” her decisions on the agency’s biddings.

Saying that calling it a “bribe” sounded too harsh, Gloria Mercado, former DepEd undersecretary for human resources and organizational development and Head of Procuring Entity (HoPE), told the House committee on good government and public accountability that from February to September 2023, she “received a total of nine envelopes labeled ‘HoPE.’” and “50K.”

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Mercado said in her affidavit that the envelopes were “handed to me monthly by (former DepEd) Assistant Secretary Sunshine Fajarda, which she says came directly from the office of Vice President Sara Duterte.”

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She added that Fajarda usually told her “galing kay VP (from VP)” and said “it would appear that I received these envelopes by virtue of my office as HopE,” noting that Fajarda is married to DepEd special disbursement officer Edward Fajarda.

‘Disgruntled former employee’

However, Duterte denied Mercado’s allegations, daring her to show a paper trail of her supposed payoff.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Duterte said Mercado was a “disgruntled former employee” of DepEd.

“If she makes any accusations, she should have documents. Like me, if I would make any responses to them, I will provide the documents,” Duterte said.

She alleged that Mercado solicited P16 million from a company using the secretary’s name, supposedly without any authorization from the DepEd.

A document provided by the Office of the Vice President (OVP) showed a supposed letter by Mercado with the letterhead of her former office as DepEd undersecretary for human resource and organizational development.

The document bore a breakdown of the P16 million solicitation, which, it said, was for the DepEd’s General User Response Optimization (Guro).

This included a trailer vehicle, equipment for the communication center, funding for the DepEd Guro apps, and training, among others.

According to Duterte, Mercado also took a teacher from Central Visayas and designated the teacher as an executive assistant, a non-teaching task, at the DepEd central office.

The Vice President said she confronted Mercado after hearing about this during her previous school visits in Cebu.

“It turned out that it’s been our HR all along that’s been doing injustice to our teachers. That’s where I put my foot down,” Duterte recalled.

“I told her that there was loss of trust and confidence and that you should go. She asked if she could instead go through retirement considering that she was already old, and I said it was okay,” she added.

Duterte pointed out that those were the reasons why Mercado was removed from her position and that there are documents to support her decision to let go of the DepEd official.

More recipients

Confronted by Duterte’s allegations that she had solicited P16 million from a private entity, the 65-year-old Mercado suddenly brought out a pouch where she kept nine empty envelopes that supposedly contained the P50,000 monthly cash given to her.

Mercado claimed that she opened the envelopes only after she availed herself of voluntary retirement and donated the entire P450,000 to a charitable non-government organization, which she did not identify.

She said that having worked in the government for 40 years, Duterte’s allegations were “painful” to her.

In her affidavit, Mercado also said that she was one of the signatories of DepEd’s checking account, along with undersecretary for finance Annalyn Sevilla, and signed checks related to the DepEd’s P37.5-million confidential fund.

She attested that during her tenure, she was informed by her staff that the DepEd special disbursement officer was inquiring about the bank accounts of several individuals “upon the instruction of the Office of the Secretary.”

According to Mercado, “evidently, it would appear that regional directors and other employees on the field would also receive sums on top of their regular salaries.”

Timeline

“Sometime in October 2023, as the likelihood of a bidding failure for the DepEd Computerization Program became apparent, I was approached by (Duterte’s spokesperson) Atty. Reynold Munsayac. He suggested, in the presence of three other DepEd officials who I was with, that the bidders should discuss among themselves,” she said.

Mercado claimed that she “firmly asserted that the procurement must be implemented and conducted in strict adherence with the rules.”

In the same month, she was summoned by OVP chief of staff Zuleika Lopez and told that “I should tender my resignation effective that day. I refused to resign and insisted on departing from the service through voluntary retirement.”

According to Mercado, the timing of her meeting with Zuleika “struck me as more than coincidental, it gave me the impression that my candid response to Atty. Munsayac’s suggestion was the real reason behind the push to relieve me of my office. It was as if l had become an unwelcome obstacle in the procurement process, despite simply doing my job as the HoPE and undersecretary for Human Resources of DepEd.”

She noted that six other DepEd undersecretaries and assistant secretaries were “summoned on different occasions by Ms. Zuleika, Atty. (Michael) Poa, and Atty. Fajarda, all for the same purpose of informing them that they should tender their resignation, effective on the same day.”

OVP staff no-show

Meanwhile, OVP personnel on Wednesday continued to snub the hearings of the House panel.

A Sept. 23 letter from Duterte received by the committee on Wednesday informed the panel that the OVP would not be taking part in the proceedings as it questioned its conduct.

Manila Rep. Joel Chua, chair of the committee, took note of the Vice President’s letter and proceeded with the inquiry where panel vice chair Antipolo Rep. Romeo Acop moved to issue show-cause orders against at least five invited resource persons from the OVP who skipped the hearing.

Directed to explain within 48 hours their absence, under pain of being cited in contempt, were Lopez; assistant chief of staff and bids and awards chair Lemuel Ortonio; lawyer Rosalynne Sanchez, director for administrative and financial services; OVP special disbursing officer Gina Acosa, and chief accountant Julieta Villadelrey.

Chua denied claims that the inquiry was “somehow a political exercise, or an attack on an individual,” stressing, “I would like to make things very clear–this is not the case.”