‘GALING KAY VP’: RETIRED DEPED USEC REVEALS SARA DUTERTE GAVE MONTHLY ‘ENVELOPES’ TO DEPED OFFICIALS ON TOP OF SALARIES

By Junex Doronio

MANILA — Forced to resign but opted to retire early, former Department of Education (DepEd) Undersecretary Gloria Jumamil-Mercado has revealed that Vice President Sara Duterte was giving officials of the agency “envelopes” monthly during her tenure as Education Secretary.

Testifying before the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability, Jumamil-Mercado divulged on Wednesday (25 September 2024) that she started receiving the “envelopes” when she was designated as head of the Procuring Entity (HoPE) of DepEd.

“Between February 2023 and September 2023, I received a total of nine (9) envelopes labeled ‘HoPE’, my concurrent position in DepEd during that time. These envelopes were handed to me monthly by Assistant Secretary Sunshine Fajarda, which she says came directly from the office of Vice President Sara Duterte,” Jumamil-Mercado said.

“(G)aling kay VP, is what she would typically say as she hands the envelopes. It would appear that I received these envelopes by virtue of my office as HoPE. Atty. Sunshine Fajarda is the wife of Edward D. Fajarda who is the Special Disbursement Officer,” she added.

Jumamil-Mercado, who had been in public service for 40 years, said she did not immediately open the envelopes and hoped to return it during the exit call she requested before going into voluntary retirement.

“When I retired already, I was asking for an exit call so I could return. I wanted to return those envelopes. But I wasn’t able to have that exit call. I wasn’t able to return. So, I sought some advice, and they advised me to donate it to a non-government organization, which I did, and that was the only time I opened those envelopes, in front of the people I was donating it to. It was P50,000 per envelope. They issued me a receipt for P450,000,” Mercado said.

She also told the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability that VP Sara’s chief of staff asked her to resign after she asserted in October 2023 that procurement for the DepEd Computerization Program must be “implemented and conducted in strict adherence with the rules”.

House Deputy Majority Leader Tingog Party-list Rep. Jude Acidre told Jumamil-Mercado that VP Duterte had brushed her off as a “disgruntled former employee” and claimed that she was removed for soliciting millions of pesos.

Jumamil-Mercado strongly denied the allegations and stressed that she did not solicit money but equipment for a DepEd program.

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