Malacañang is looking to trim the budget of agencies under the Office of the President (OP)—to prevent officials from going on unnecessary trips abroad—as part of President Duterte’s crackdown on junketeers.
According to Presidential Spokesman Harry L. Roque Jr., the President might just cut the funding of agencies to limit their heads from traveling abroad. This came after Duterte consecutively fired a number of his appointees reportedly using taxpayers’ money for their junkets.
“He said it; he won’t give them sufficient funds,” Roque said in a text message.
There are around 35 agencies under the OP. Their total budget for 2018 is P75 billion. This is aside from the P6.03-billion allocation of the OP.
The latest casualty of the President’s crackdown on junketeers was former Maritime Industry Authority Marcial C. Amaro III, who, according to the Department of Transportation (DOTr), went on 18 foreign trips last year. On top of this, the DOTr claimed Amaro was out of the country six times in 2016.
Amaro suffered the same fate as that of former Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor (PCUP) Chairman Terry L. Ridon and former Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) Chairman Dionisio R. Santiago. Ridon and Santiago were both sacked by Duterte for allegedly going on lavish trips abroad.
Ridon was fired in December for reportedly traveling abroad seven times last year, mostly to attend conferences the President deemed irrelevant to Ridon’s mandate as PCUP chairman. On the other hand, Santiago was sacked last November for allegedly going to Vienna, Austria, with his family and favorite DDB employees, and to the United States with his suspected mistress and, again, favorite DDB employees.
For his part, Ridon said all conferences he attended abroad were related to his duty as urban-poor chief and were approved by travel authorities of Malacañang.
However, this justification was not enough to spare him and the other four commissioners of the PCUP from being sacked by Duterte.
Roque said this is the reason the President is looking to trim the budget of agencies under the OP to rid his appointees of unnecessary travels. Instead of instructing Malacañang to tighten its approval policy, Roque said Duterte opted to take it the hard way by slashing the funds allocated for travels of public officials.
Roque said there is no specific number of trips the President deems to be excessive for, as long as he sees them as unnecessary travels, he will certainly call the appointee’s attention, if not remove him from office. He cited as an example Santiago’s case, who had been accused of two junkets, as compared to Amaro’s 18 reported travels.
“Those were excessive, too, per the President. Note that, in Santiago’s case, he was removed for declarations, too,” Roque said.
He was referring to the axed DDB chief’s statements against the mega-rehabilitation center in Nueva Ecija. Santiago called the facility as impractical and a mistake, which drew the ire of Duterte.
To ensure their stay in office, Roque has advised public officials to maintain a low-profile lifestyle and to stray from anomalous activities, such as going on lavish trips abroad. “Let this be a reminder to all public officials that the President is serious in his mandate that they should live modest lives, that they should be true to their calling and that they should avoid unnecessary trips,” he said.
“This is the President’s unilateral decision to crack down on foreign travel of government officials. He believes that government officials should concentrate on their jobs here in the Philippines, that travels should only be for officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs, and that any foreign travel must conform with the guidelines, related to the agency’s mandate, must not be too costly and must have significant benefits to the country,” Roque added.