Sara vs another Gloria

By a curious twist of fate, two women named Gloria are now playing diametrically opposite roles in Vice President Sara Duterte’s drama-filled political life: one as her defender and the other, her accuser.

It’s no secret that former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is the mentor and ally of former president Rodrigo Duterte’s daughter, who has taken up the cudgels for her at the House of Representatives, where the former serves as a Pampanga representative.

It was, however, the second Gloria—former education undersecretary Gloria Mercado—who managed to coax Duterte out of what detractors had called her “squid tactics” amid a plethora of allegations thrown at her in recent weeks.

Mercado, who revealed she had once been Duterte’s thesis adviser for her master’s degree at the Development Academy of the Philippines, made serious allegations against her former student, as she faced an inquiry of the House good government and public accountability committee last week.

Too harsh to call bribe

The former Head of Procuring Entity (HoPE) at the Department of Education (DepEd) claimed she was given a monthly sum of P50,000, from February to September 2023, supposedly at Duterte’s behest, “to influence” her decisions on the agency’s bidding processes, including its controversial P11-billion computerization program.

In her affidavit, Mercado said a total of nine envelopes labeled “‘HoPE’” and “50K” were handed to her by former DepEd assistant secretary Sunshine Fajarda. She added that Fajarda, the wife of DepEd special disbursement officer Edward Fajarda, would usually tell her “galing kay VP (from VP).”

Mercado stopped short of calling the cash offering a bribe, saying the word was too “harsh.”

But she said she was forced to quit her post after a meeting with bidders for the agency’s acquisition of computers and other equipment when she “firmly asserted that the procurement must be implemented and conducted in strict adherence with the rules.”

As accusations go, those made by the former DepEd official certainly involve major transgressions of law, but it goes without saying that she must provide evidence to substantiate her claim beyond mere words and white envelopes anyone could have purchased from a stationery shop.

Picture of composure

But Mercado succeeded where House members had failed in drawing Duterte out of her cocoon of studied indifference.

Until Wednesday, the former education secretary had been the picture of composure amid the brickbats coming her way, looking like she had no care in the world while she posed for pictures on a Calaguas Island beach. (The sojourn was “fake news,” her office would claim until a police report exposed the lie, prompting a belated admission that it was an “official trip.”)

At a hastily called press conference hours after Mercado’s bombshell testimony, Duterte described her accuser as a “disgruntled former employee.”

“If she makes any accusations, [Mercado] should have documents,” she rightly noted. Duterte then turned the tables on Mercado, alleging, among other things, that the latter solicited P16 million from private companies using the secretary’s name without authorization. Her office presented to the media a supposed solicitation letter signed by Mercado with the DepEd letterhead.

In response, Mercado said it was DepEd’s external partnership that was in charge of inviting funders for the Guro program. “The two corporations are willing to give an affidavit that I have no solicitation from them of P16 million,” she said.

It’s imperative that authorities get to the bottom of the matter, because what’s lost in the “she-said, she-said” circus is the real scandal—the DepEd Computerization Program (DCP) that has long been riddled with inefficiency and irregularity.

Not a mere footnote

A Commission on Audit report in 2023, Duterte’s last full year as head of the agency, showed that DepEd’s “noncompliance with existing laws and regulations” prompted the disallowance of P2.2 billion in funds for its banner projects. Among those tagged noncompliant was DCP, which logged a 23.3-percent utilization rate despite receiving P11 billion each in 2022 and 2023.

At a recent hearing of the House appropriations committee, DepEd Director Ferdinand Pitagan confirmed that only P2.18 billion had been released to purchase computers, laptops, and smart TV sets since 2022. Why DepEd sought another P11 billion for the same program in 2023 is a mystery only its former leadership can explain.

Mercado’s allegations, too, demand a serious investigation by either the Department of Justice or the Office of the Ombudsman, and must not end up as a mere footnote in a House committee report.

As for Duterte, it is in her own interest to face the allegations head-on rather than play the victim and attack her accuser’s character or motive. If Mercado’s claims are groundless, as she argues, the Vice President would do well to clear her name through transparency, not obfuscation.