Duterte sacks MARINA administrator over excessive foreign trips

President Rodrigo Duterte has sacked Marcial Amaro III as administrator of the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) over excessive foreign trips.

Amaro's removal from the post was announced by presidential spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. in a press briefing in Davao City on Thursday.

The Alliance of MARINA Employees had allegedly written a letter to Duterte informing him of Amaro's 11 foreign travels in 2017. The Office of the President received the complaint on December 22, 2017.

However, a check with the Department of Transportation (DOTr), MARINA's parent agency, showed Amaro made 24 foreign trips, Roque said.

"It turns out that the complaint of the employees is wrong," Roque said. "Because while the employees said that Mr. Amaro made 11 trips in 2017 alone, the DOTr reported that Mr. Amaro in fact made 18 official travels in 2017. In 2016, he had six, or a total 24 travels."

"The President has decided therefore to terminate his services," Roque said.

Roque said based on the documents provided by the Presidential Management Staff, all of Amaro's trips were official except for one. He added that only three of the trips were sponsored, while all the others were paid for by the Philippine government.

He added that Amaro received an honorarium and other sums for almost all of his trips abroad.

In response to his firing, Amaro said he respects the President’s decision.

For its part, the DOTr expressed confidence in the President’s decision to fire the MARINA administrator.

“The DOTr trusts that the President’s decision is just, fair, and unprejudiced as it was based on verifiable facts and a thorough investigation,” the agency said in a statement.

In the same statement the government agency, led by Transportation Chief Arthur Tugade, claimed it scrutinizes the “affairs and performances” of all its attached agencies and “shall not, in any case, tolerate corruption and excesses in government service.”

“Rest assured that the DOTr and its attached agencies and offices will be very discerning and judicious in this matter,” the statement said.

Before Amaro, Duterte also dismissed former Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor chair Terry Ridon over "unnecessary trips." He traveled seven times before he was sacked.

"If seven foreign travel is deemed excessive by the President, 24 travels is definitely excessive by the President's standards," he said.

"The point of the President is, we have to be selective [on] the trips that we will undertake and definitely 24 travels is excessive," Roque added. —KBK/BAP, GMA News