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.
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