Gloria Mercado, the career bureaucrat spelling trouble for Sara Duterte

The House of Representatives has found its first whistleblower against Sara Duterte, and her name is Gloria Jumamil Mercado.

She is no ordinary informant presented by the House, and the allegations made by Mercado against the Duterte-led Department of Education (DepEd) — from a deputy supposedly trying to rig bidding procedures, to the Vice President herself showering her subordinates with wads of cash — spell trouble for the country’s second highest official.

In a counter-offensive...