DAVAO CITY—President Rodrigo Duterte said on Wednesday he will ask the Climate Change Commission to send just one representative to international conferences.

In his speech here, the president said he noticed delegates attending international conferences on climate change with questionable knowledge on environmental issues.

"There's a climate change (conference) in Africa, and they are there. There's a climate change in New Zealand, and they are there, en masse. And then there's a climate change in Tokyo, they are there. Every department sends somebody who does not even know the definition of a climate and how it changes," he said.

The president said that "to date" he has fired 16 undersecretaries and 3 Cabinet secretaries because of excessive and unnecessary travels abroad.

"Most of them were my friends, who were with me when I was campaigning, and it pains me deeply to see them go," he said.

The Climate Change Commission, the lead policy-making government body tasked to coordinate, monitor and evaluate programs tackling the impact of climate change in the Philippines, is attached to the Office of the President.

"I will not allow everybody to go out. We need only one mouth. We are not as rich as France, Great Britain, where we can send a delegation," Duterte said.

"Whoever goes there should pass by my office and we will talk about what to say and how to make demands." — With a report from Hernel Tocmo, ABS-CBN News