(Eagle News) – President Rodrigo Duterte said that he had already “fired” 16 government officials, including three department secretaries, aside from undersecretaries and cabinet members, because of their frequent travels attending “climate change conferences” all over the world.
The President did not name who these officials were, except that he fired them for their frequent travels connected to climate change meetings abroad.
“There’s a climate change in Africa and they are there. There’s a climate change in New Zealand and they are there en masse. Then there’s a climate change in Tokyo, they are there,” he said in his speech on Wednesday, July 25, at the Marco Polo Hotel in Davao City.
Duterte, addressing the Asia-Pacific Healthy Islands Conference 2018, noted that the officials who were sent to attend the climate change conference were so many, and travel without even having enough knowledge about the issue.
“You know, I tell you what, to date, I have fired something like 16 — three department secretaries, Cabinet members, and 16 undersecretaries. Why? So much travel,” he said.
“Every department sends somebody who does not even know the definition of a climate and how it changes. How is the process done to create a problem for the ecosystem and environment? So all of them,” he said.
“And when I saw the list of 11 travels, climate change conferences all over the world and it has nothing — nothing good has come to my country except the expenses of going out and seeing the cities. To hell with climate change because whether you like it or not, the typhoon is coming,” he said.
The 73-year old Philippine leader said that he had already fired a lot of his officials, even though many of them were his friends and were with him since the campaign period.
“And I said to this day, I fired a lot. Most of them were my friends who were with me when I was campaigning, and it pains me deeply to see them go. As I have had yesterday. It makes me sad but you know… Once and for all, we decide,” he said.
Duterte said that not just about everybody can go to all the climate conventions and conferences taking place around the world. He said he would prefer to have only one representative. The Philippines would not be sending a delegation.
“We cannot be going to conventions every now and… I would insist on one representative from the Climate Change Commission, and I will not allow everybody to go out. You need only one mouth. We are not as rich as France, Great Britain where you can send a delegation. We can only afford to send one,” he said.
(Eagle News Service)
