... for 'excessive' foreign trips
Passengers disembark from the MV Lady of Love of Medallion Transport Inc. in this file photo. MARINA supervises maritime transportation in the country. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO.
MANILA, Philippines (Updated 2:16 p.m.) — After days of vague hints, the Palace announced Thursday that President Rodrigo Duterte has fired another government official due to "excessive foreign trips."
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, in a press conference on Thursday, said that Duterte terminated the services of Maritime Industry Authority administrator Marcial Quirico Amaro III for making too many trips abroad.
MARINA is an attached agency of the Department of Transportation and is mandated to "adopt and implement a practicable and coordinated Maritime Industry Development Program." Thee authority also supervises and regulates the organizational management, ownership, and operations of all water transport utilities and other maritime enterprises.
Roque said that Duterte ordered an investigation into Amaro after MARINA employees complained that the agency head took 11 foreign trips in 2017.
He said that Department of Transportation records showed Amaro went on six trips in 2016 and 18 trips in 2017.
Amaro's firing comes less than a month after Presidential Commission on Urban Poor chairman Terry Ridon and his fellow commissioners were terminated for going on junkets and for not meeting regularly.
Ridon has said the seven trips abroad he were approved by government and were part of his job.
"And if seven foreign travel[s were] deemed excessive by the president, 24 travels [are] definitely excessive by the president's standards," Roque said.
The Presidential spokesperson also stressed that the latest firing is indicative of Duterte's resolve to eradicate corruption in government.
"They should live a modest life, that they should be true to their calling, and that they should avoid unnecessary trips," he said.
The Palace, on Wednesday, issued a memorandum regulating foreign trips.
Under the guidelines, foreign trips will only be allowed if:
- the purpose of the trip is strictly within the mandate of the requesting government official or personnel
- the projected expenses for the trip are not excessive
- and the trip is expected to bring substantial benefit to the country
