News Roundup 25 September 2024
Sep 25, 2024 • 5 min Read
Ex-Usec Mercado: No money solicited in official DepEd program | INQUIRER.NET – MANILA, Philippines — Former Undersecretary Gloria Jumamil Mercado has denied Vice President Sara Duterte’s allegations that she was let go from the Department of Education (DepEd) for soliciting money from private companies, stating that there was no money involved in that issue.
Mercado also clarified before the House of Representatives committee on good government and public accountability on Wednesday that the issue raised by Duterte was actually an official government program — a system that would have allowed Duterte to contact teachers wherever she may be.
According to Mercado, the allegation that she solicited P16 million from private companies was one of the reasons cited by Duterte’s chief-of-staff, Undersecretary Zuleika Lopez, when she asked Mercado to resign from DepEd.
“The second one is, Zuleika mentioned that I solicited from two agencies, so I explained to her that it was a program which our strand developed. There were two consultants from Unicef to develop the app, and then we asked our external partnership office to look for external partners who will be presenting the program because we developed the concept,” Mercado said.
“It’s DepEd-Guro, it’s her being able to contact the 980,000 teachers — it’s like a means for her to talk to teachers wherever she may be. The second one was for us to do an electronic mode of the RQA (Registry of Qualified Applicants), parang there’s no human intervention anymore,” she added. “Everyone uploads the credential, even the computation of the teacher qualification is already on […] there is no human intervention. So that was the program.”
According to Mercado, the DepEd’s external partnership was in charge of inviting the partners or corporations that may be willing to assist in crafting the program.
Full Story at: Ex-Usec Mercado: No money solicited in official DepEd program (inquirer.net)
Cayetano, Zubiri caught on video in heated shouting match at Senate | INQUIRER.NET – MANILA, Philippines — Senator Alan Peter Cayetano was caught on a video cursing at Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri during a heated debate in the Senate session hall on Tuesday.
The video obtained by INQUIRER.net showed the two in a shouting match, pointing fingers at each other while the session was suspended.
“Don’t give me sh*t din, pare. ‘Pag lugar mo, ilang beses kang nakiusap sa’kin eh (How many times have you asked me),” Cayetano could be heard telling Zubiri.
“’Wag mo akong sigawan. Ilang beses ka ring nakiusap ah, hanggang dun ah. Nag-abroad ka pa eh,” he also said.
(Don’t shout at me. You’ve asked me several times too, so it’s the same. You even went abroad.)
Zubiri could be seen closing in on Cayetano with Senator JV Ejercito trying to stop the two.
“Anong gusto mo? Anong gusto mo? O, put*ng*na, anong gusto mo?” Cayetano went on.
(What do you want? What do you want? Son of a b*tch, what do you want?)
At this point, Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Roberto Ancan and Cayetano’s sister, Pia, rushed to intervene.
“Put*ng*na. Sindak ka nang sindak dito eh. Bakit, sisigawan mo ko? Anong pakialam mo? Wala ka namang pakialam sa boboto dun eh. Interes mo lang iniisip mo e,” Cayetano said.
(Son of a b*tch. You’re just trying to scare us here. Why are you shouting at me? What’s it to you? You don’t care about the voters there anyway; you’re only thinking about your own interests.)
The root of the conflict was Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 23, which would include 10 Embo barangays in the two legislative districts of Taguig and Pateros so as not to disenfranchise the registered voters there.
Full Story at: Cayetano, Zubiri caught on video in heated shouting match (inquirer.net)
Ending debates, House grants OVP P733-million budget amid Sara’s absences | PHILSTAR.COM – MANILA, Philippines — Despite no representative from the Office of the Vice President (OVP) being present, the House of Representatives moved forward with discussions on the agency’s proposed 2025 budget on Wednesday, September 25.
House lawmakers concluded the budget proceedings, submitting the proposed budget of P733 million for the OVP. This amount reflects a 63.8% cut from the OVP’s original request of P2.026 billion.
On September 11, the appropriations committee recommended reallocating P1.293 billion from the OVP’s budget to the Department of Health and the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
The appropriations committee recommended on September 11 the realignment of P1.293 billion slashed from the agency’s budget to the Department of Health and Department of Social Welfare and Development.
Consistent absence. While Vice President Sara Duterte submitted a letter stating she would leave the budget deliberations to the plenary on Monday, lawmakers on Tuesday said they would extend “maximum leniency,” as the letter did not explicitly mention her or her staff’s inability to attend.
As a result, the House was forced to postpone budget deliberations for the agency until the last day of plenary debates for the 2025 General Appropriations Bills (GAB) after the OVP was absent for three days.
Full Story at: Ending debates, House grants OVP P733-million amid Sara’s absences | Philstar.com
Scale of VP Sara’s alleged fund misuse breaches plunder threshold – House panel | PHILSTAR.COM – MANILA, Philippines — The high-profile probe into Vice President Sara Duterte’s alleged misuse of public funds involves amounts that breach the legal threshold for plunder, the House panel chairperson leading the inquiry said on Wednesday, September 25.
Rep. Joel Chua (Manila, 3rd District), chairperson of the House good government committee, said the “sheer vastness” of the funds being scrutinized justifies the continued conduct of the hearings, which Duterte has repeatedly criticized for being a political attack against her.
“[The] sheer vastness of these potentially misused funds sets this matter apart from other instances of irregularity and disallowance – these amounts easily surpass the threshold for the crime of plunder under our laws,” Chua said in statement at the start of the House panel’s second hearing.
The House panel is intent on getting to the bottom of the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) alleged irregularities under Duterte, which Chua described as having “astronomical, almost unimaginable amount of money involved.”
Under Philippine laws, the crime of plunder can only be committed by government officials who acquire ill-gotten wealth worth P50 million.
Duterte is being accused of misusing the confidential funds she received in 2022 after state auditors flagged the OVP’s utilization of the secret fund.
Full Story at: VP Sara Duterte’s alleged fund misuse breaches plunder threshold – House panel | Philstar.com
