Orlando S. Mercado

Who is Orlando S. Mercado?

Orlando Sanchez Mercado, also known as Orly Mercado, is a politician from the Philippines. Mercado was a senator for three terms and the head and anchor the popular radio program Radyo Patrol of ABS-CBN from 1969 to 1971. Since 1975, he has been the producer and host of GMA Network's Kapwa Ko Mahal Ko, the pioneer television program in public service in the Philippines. In 1998, he was appointed Secretary of National Defense by President Joseph Estrada. He resigned as Secretary when the call for President Estrada's resignation in 2001 resulted to the EDSA Revolution II.

In 2008 Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo nominated Mercado as Philippine ambassador to the People's Republic of China, also accredited to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Mongolia, however this was bypassed by the Commission on Appointments. In 2009 he was appointed as the first permanent representative of the Philippines to ASEAN, a newly created ambassadorial post that then did not require Commission on Appointments approval.

He is currently the Secretary-General of the Eastern Regional Organization for Public Administration, an organization of states, groups and individuals in the general area of Asia and the Pacific. He is a professor of public administration at the University of the Philippines where he also obtained his Ph.D. in Political Science. He recently returned to radio broadcasting on June 17, 2013 by launching his radio show "Orly Mercado: All Ready" on Radyo Singko 92.3 NewsFM