Vice President Sara Dutere has been dared to undergo a lie detector test to substantiate her claims that the allegations against her handing monthly envelopes with P50,000 to a former Department of Education (DepEd) undersecretary during her tenure as DepEd secretary are false.
Ex-DepEd undersecretary Gloria Jumamil Mercado said she received envelopes from Assistant Secretary Sunshine Fajarda between February and September 2023, allegedly on behalf of Duterte.
She suspected that Duterte gave the envelope to influence her as Head of Procuring Entity (HoPE), her concurrent position at the time.
Mercado claimed that apart from her, DepEd regional directors and field officers also receive money "on top of their regular salaries."
The Vice President, who headed DepEd for nearly two years until June 2024, was quick to deny Mercado's allegations. She called her a "disgruntled" former DepEd employee who was ditched after soliciting P16 million in donations from the private sector without DepEd's authorization.
House Assistant Majority Leader Jefferson Khonghun said lawmakers doubt the veracity of Duterte's assertion, citing her refusal to take oath during the previous hearing into the alleged misuse of DepEd's funds.
"Usec. Mercado's testimony was made under oath [while] VP Duterte refused to take hers… If VP Duterte is not hiding anything, there is no issue in taking the lie detector test," said the lawmaker, one of the staunchest critics of Duterte.
He added, "It is no longer just a matter of irregularity. This is a matter of integrity in public service. The Vice President should come clean, and she can only do that if she passes a lie detector test."
Duterte skipped the resumption of the House probe on Wednesday, asserting that she will not attend the inquiry based on "unsubstantiated allegations."
Unbothered
House Deputy Majority Leader Jude Acidre, meanwhile, said that they will continue to hold subsequent hearings even though Congress is currently on a month-long break following the "expose."
"Personally, I want to know the extent. Because according to former Usec. Gloria Mercado, there is another recipient. I believe that if there is another, there are probably more others," Acidre said in an interview on Thursday.
Mercado submitted the nine envelopes to the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability , along with a receipt proving that she never used the money and donated it to a non-government organization.
Mercado retired in November 2023, a month after she was forced to tender her resignation due to her purported refusal to heed the order of the higher-ups to bypass the procurement process.
Duterte reportedly left the DepEd with P12.3 billion in disallowances, suspensions, and charges that remained unsettled by the year-end of 2023. These supposed irregularities along with those in the Office of the Vice President have been at the center of the House inquiry.