“The envelope where the money was”
Rep. Jude Acidre relayed details from Vice President Sara Duterte's recent press conference, where she denied allegations that former DepEd Undersecretary Gloria Mercado received P50,000 monthly for nine months.
Shortly after, Mercado responded and turned over the envelopes containing the money she received from Duterte during the House Committee hearing on Good Government and Public Accountability.
Rep. Jude Acidre relayed details from Vice President Sara Duterte's recent press conference, where she denied allegations that former DepEd Undersecretary Gloria Mercado received P50,000 monthly for nine months.
Shortly after, Mercado responded and turned over the envelopes containing the money she received from Duterte during the House Committee hearing on Good Government and Public Accountability.
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TVTranscript
00:00Last question, ma'am. At least, Mr. Chair, I would know the Vice President is watching us
00:06because she just had a press conference and she said that she's denying
00:13giving former DepEd Undersecretary Gloria Mercado 50,000 for nine months.
00:20And the Vice President saying that Mercado was let go because she used DepEd to solicit donations
00:26from the private sector amounting to 16 million without her knowledge.
00:31And she adds that she will provide the media with paper trail to back up her claim
00:35describing Mercado as a disgruntled former DepEd official.
00:39I think, ma'am, given your long history and long service to the Republic, 40 long years,
00:46I think it's fair for you to be given the opportunity to reply to the Vice President.
00:51I think, I don't want to do this, but since she's the one who said it, I will turn over the envelope.
01:05The envelope is where the money was.
01:08One second.
01:10So it's nine envelopes.
01:12Please get the envelope.
01:15So it says hope and the amount is there.
01:19It's very painful.
01:33How old are you? I hope you don't mind.
01:36I just want to know because you said you've been in government for 40 years.
01:42I'm 65, sir.
01:44So when you were appointed as USEC in 2022, how old were you at the time?
01:55I was 64.
01:5764. I'm sure.
01:59At that age, why did you finish taking care of your name for the past 40 years?
02:10Yes, sir.
02:13Okay, anyway.
02:15Mr. Chairman, Mr. Chairman, I'd like to...
02:18Mr. Chairman, Mr. Chairman, I'm here.
02:22Mr. Chairman, can I continue?
02:24Congressman, wait, before I recognize Congressman Paduano, ma'am.
02:30Yes.
02:31I believe...
02:34With the indulgence of Congressman Asidere, may...
02:38Please continue, Congressman.
02:40Sir, can we allow USEC Mercado to continue with their response?
02:45Because I was trying to ask her about the 16 million that the Vice President mentioned.
02:52Please respond with respect to the 16 million.
02:551660.
02:5716, 16 million.
03:01I would like to respond to that because it's a press con.
03:05When I was called for by USEC Sulaika, he said, USEC Mercado, you have to go because, one, you have a teacher in your staff.
03:19But I explained to them that the teacher was a contract of services when I joined DepEd.
03:26And the teacher has a pending application in Cebu because he's from the Visayas.
03:33And while he was working with us, he qualified for the RQA.
03:39But then when he received his appointment as a teacher, it was already past the opening of the class.
03:49It was almost opening and the teaching load was already apportioned.
03:58So I called the RD.
03:59I said, can I still keep him?
04:02Because he was working on the Special Hardship Allowance, which was a program that VP Sara also wanted to improve.
04:13Because there's a new hardship allowance and we were just able to reduce the hardship threshold from 0.37 to 0.33.
04:23And she wanted the basis for the giving of the hardship allowance, Special Hardship Allowance, revisited.
04:34So that's why that guy was the one working on it.
04:40So I explained and I don't feel at all guilty about what he said.
04:48The second one is Sulayka mentioned that I solicited from two agencies.
04:55So I explained to her that it was a program which our strand developed.
05:03There were two consultants from UNICEF who developed the app.
05:07And then we asked our external partnership office to look for external partners who will be presenting the program.
05:17Because we developed the concept.
05:19It was DepEdGuru.
05:21It's her being able to contact the 980,000 teachers.
05:28She can talk to the teachers anywhere.
05:32The second one was for us to do an electronic mode of the RQA.
05:39Parang there's no human intervention anymore.
05:42Everyone uploads the credential.
05:46Even the computation of the teacher qualification is already on an, what do you call this?
05:58Wala na siyang human intervention.
06:01So that was the program.
06:03It wasn't us who choose who would be the partners who will be invited.
06:08It was the external partnership.
06:10So we made a presentation to almost all the corporations.
06:14And then some of the corporations appreciated that it's a very important program.
06:19So some of them committed to buy.
06:22Because what we did is we divided the total fund of 16 million into chewable chunks.
06:29So if you're interested with this package, ito lang.
06:32Because not everyone wanted to pay the 16 million.
06:37But there were two corporations who were willing to fund.
06:42Because we wanted to put one in Mindanao, one in Visayas, and one in Luzon.
06:48So there were two who committed to fund the full package.
06:55And those were the two corporations that, like I said, I solicited.
07:03So I explained properly.
07:04I did not solicit.
07:06There's no money involved there.
07:08These are equipments.
07:10Walang cash po doon.
07:12Equipments siya na ito turn over sa DepEd.
07:16So I feel very sad that up until now, the BP has not been appraised, as I explained it to her people,
07:26that we did not solicit.
07:28In fact, the two corporations are willing to give an affidavit that I have no solicitation from them of 16 million.
07:37So to reiterate, Mr. Chair Yusek, first, this was a sanctioned DepEd project.
07:45It's a DepEd project, yes.
07:47Second, you did not do the solicitation yourself.
07:50This was managed by the External Partnerships Office.
07:54Third, no cash donation was ever made.
07:57Equipments.
07:58Equipments was given to the department.
08:00So none of this, what allegations that the Vice President is making against you is true.
08:06Yes, sir. Yes, Mr. Chair.
08:09And that makes it very sad because she's saying it now.
08:13Ibig sabihin, her people did not explain to her.
08:17At least I know she's watching then.
08:19She'll probably be able to get the information from you now.
08:22Thank you, Yusek Blo. Thank you, Mr. Chair.