A congressional committee deliberating on Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment has issued a subpoena for documents submitted by a former Education department official who claimed she received cash-filled envelopes allegedly originating from Duterte.
The subpoena, a copy of which was shared with reporters Friday, was directed at the House legislative archives and orders the submission of records filed by former Education Undersecretary Gloria Jumamil Mercado to the House Committee on Justice. Also covered by the order are transcripts and video footage from hearings conducted by the House Good Government and Public Accountability Committee between September and November 2024.
Mercado appeared before that panel over a year ago and testified that she had been handed envelopes of cash she said came from the vice president. In her account, she identified the funds as linked to her role as head of procuring entity at the Department of Education.
“Between February of 2023 to September 2023, I received a total of nine envelopes labeled HOPE, my current position at DepEd during that time,” Mercado said. “These envelopes were handed to me mostly by Assistant Secretary Sunshine M. Fajarda, which she says came directly from Vice President Duterte.”
Duterte has pushed back on Mercado’s credibility, describing her in September 2024 as a “disgruntled” former employee who was “let go” over allegations of soliciting cash from a private company.
The document retrieval is part of an active evidence-gathering phase as the justice committee prepares for its next hearing on April 14, where deliberations on probable cause will continue. The committee must determine whether the complaints against Duterte warrant a full House vote.
Two complaints advanced by the panel last month center on allegations that Duterte misappropriated hundreds of millions of pesos in confidential and intelligence funds from both the Office of the Vice President and the Education department, which she headed before her current post. The complaints also allege she conspired to have President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez killed, and that she accumulated wealth beyond what she had declared.
Duterte has publicly stated her intention to run for president in 2028, making the outcome of the impeachment proceedings consequential for her political trajectory.
