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MANILA - Sacked Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) administrator Marcial Amaro III on Friday defended his controversial trips abroad, saying these were part of his job.

"Marina is an international organization. We are a specialized organization of the government that deals with international organizations," he told ANC's Headstart, a day after he was fired.

President Rodrigo Duterte fired Amaro for his “excessive travels,” spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. announced on Thursday.

Amaro admitted he traveled a total of 21 times in his year and a half as chair of the agency, but maintained all the trips were approved by the Department of Transportation.

Amaro, who learned of his dismissal through Roque's televised press conference, said while maritime tackles international trade as it stays on top of logistics, cruises, and tourism, domestic trade is also affected since all international practices are used locally.

"All the policies and programs emanate from the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and we need to discuss it quite toughly with them otherwise it’s going to affect our domestic trade," he said.

In the interview, Amaro said he attended 6 meetings of the IMO in the United Kingdom during his term--twice in 2016 and 4 times in 2017-- as part of the executive council. He said the Philippines had to attend 16 meetings annually.

Of his 21 trips, only 6 were sponsored by other countries, while the rest, including the IMO meetings, were paid for by the Philippine government, Amaro admitted.

He however emphasized that these meetings were necessary and beneficial for the country.

"We 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," he said of the IMO meetings he attended.

He added, he closed 2 bilateral agreements outside the country and came up with about 15 other deals.

Amaro said he had to attend all these official functions abroad himself since he was not appointed any deputy administrator.

Amaro added he believes "the Palace would realize that whoever would occupy my previous position would have to travel the same way."

WHO SOUGHT HIS OUSTER?

Malacañang supposedly received a letter from Alliance of Marina Employees earlier, saying Amaro was an “absentee administrator” and his trips have affected his work and demoralized employees.

But Amaro claimed Marina employees confirmed to him that they never sent a complaint.

"It was received by the Palace at face value...The first day of 2018, I met with the directors of the Alliance of Marina Employees and they straightforwardly said it is not coming from their ranks. They issued a resolution (denying) sending out any complaint letter to the Palace," he said.

Amaro, who claimed getting information that Friday could be his last day in office, said his modernization program for the domestic fleet may have irked some shipping companies and this could "probably" be one of the reasons for his dismissal.

He added, he also closed down about 22 maritime schools and they could have also lobbied for his removal from office.

Amaro, though disappointed that he would not be able to implement the programs he lined up for 2018, said he had accepted Duterte's decision.