{"id":143875,"date":"2018-01-05T01:58:46","date_gmt":"2018-01-05T06:58:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=143875"},"modified":"2018-01-05T01:58:46","modified_gmt":"2018-01-05T06:58:46","slug":"axed-marina-head-defends-foreign-trips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/01\/05\/axed-marina-head-defends-foreign-trips\/","title":{"rendered":"Axed MARINA head defends foreign trips"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"(Photo<\/a>
FILE: Former MARINA administrator Marcial Amaro III (Photo by MARINA<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Recently dismissed Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) administrator Marcial Amaro III defended that his trips to foreign countries were part of his job and not junkets.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the thing is, MARINA is an international organization. We are a special organization of the government that deals with international organizations,\u201d Amaro pointed out in an interview with ANC on Friday.<\/p>\n

He further said that though marital affairs focus on logistics, cruises, and tourism, domestic trade is still an important aspect to take note of.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo all the policies and programs emanate from the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and we need to discuss it quite toughly with them, otherwise it\u2019s going to affect our domestic trade,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Amaro did say that the trips he made benefitted the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are providing security for our seafarers because we should understand that there are a lot of countries who would want to get our position as the major providers of seafarers,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

In the same interview, he admitted that he did have a total of 21 trips abroad, however, he stressed that all those travels were approved by the Department of Transportation (DOTr). In detail, he said that six out of 21 were sponsored by other countries, while the remaining were funded by the Philippine government.<\/p>\n

DOTr, however, in a statement yesterday said, \u201cThe DOTr trusts that the President\u2019s decision is just, fair, and unprejudiced as it was based on verifiable facts and a thorough investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Transportation Department also said that they do not tolerate \u201ccorruption and excesses\u201d in government.<\/p>\n

In a letter dated December 21, the Alliance of the MARINA Employees (AME) addressed a letter to Duterte, calling Amaro an ‘absentee administrator.’ However, Amaro said in the interview that he met with the directors of AME on January 1, 2018, and he said that they denied sending such letter.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was received by the Palace at face value,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque announced President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s decision to fire Amaro over his supposed junkets, in a press conference.<\/p>\n

Amaro said that he had no prior knowledge of his dismissal until Roque made the announcement. He, however, said that he respects the President\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently dismissed Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) administrator Marcial Amaro III defended that his trips to foreign countries were part of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":143935,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[41808,12455,15359,6196,41806,41807,2444],"class_list":["post-143875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-alliance-of-the-marina-employees","tag-department-of-transportation","tag-harry-roque","tag-marina","tag-maritime-industry-authority","tag-martial-amaro-iii","tag-rodrigo-duterte","mauthors-bea-kirstein-t-manalaysay","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}