MANILA - President Rodrigo Duterte has fired Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) administrator Marcial Amaro III due to “excessive travels”, Malacañang said Thursday.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. said Duterte found as excessive Amaro’s 24 trips - 6 in 2016 and 18 in 2017 - since he came to office.
Roque noted that former Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor chair Terry Ridon was fired by the President for taking at least 7 foreign trips as head of the commission.
"If 7 foreign travels was deemed excessive, 24 travels is definitely excessive by the President’s standard," he said in a news briefing in Davao City.
"Let this be a reminder to all public officials that the President is serious in his mandate that they live modest lives, that they should be true to their callings and avoid unnecessary trips."
Roque noted that while only one of Amaro’s 24 trips was not official, “the point of the President is we have to be selective in the trips we will undertake, and 24 travels is excessive.”
He added that of Amaro’s 24 trips, only 3 were sponsored while the rest were shouldered by the government.
“In almost all the trips, he received honorarium and other sums,” Roque said.
The Alliance of Marina Employees earlier said Amaro was an “absentee administrator” and his trips have affected his work and demoralized employees.
The Marina chief had earlier defended his trips, saying these would benefit Filipino seafarers.
“That would be a productive trip in a sense na kung hindi tayo nakikipag-discuss, nakikipag-argue sa mga organizations who create international regulations, ang magsa-suffer ho ay ang bansa natin,” Amaro told ABS-CBN News.
(That would be a productive trip in the sense that if we don't discuss and argue with organizations that create international regulations, our country will suffer.)
The employees' group also claimed that Amaro had bragged about his supposed ties with Davao-based businessman Dennis Uy, one of the biggest donors to Duterte’s presidential campaign.
The complaint came as the President told government officials to limit their trips abroad.
Aside from Ridon and Amaro, the President had also sacked Dangerous Drugs Board chief Dionisio Santiago over allegations that he made unnecessary foreign trips.
Malacañang also on Wednesday released a memorandum outlining rules for foreign travels of officials and personnel under the executive branch.
The memorandum, dated January 3 and signed by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, said no official foreign travel shall be allowed unless the purpose of the trip is strictly within the mandate of the official or personnel, the projected expenses for the trip are “not excessive,” and the trip is expected to bring “substantial benefit to the country.”