Duterte sacks 19 officials due to frequent trips abroad

DAVAO CITY — President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday said he had so far fired three secretaries and 16 undersecretaries for making so many trips abroad to attend climate change conferences.

“There’s climate change in Africa and they’re there. There’s climate change in New Zealand and they’re there. There’s climate change in Tokyo and they’re there. There are climate change conferences all around the world and nothing is done for the country, They just visit the cities, to hell with climate change,‘ Duterte said in his speech at the Asia-Pacific Healthy Islands Conference 2018 at The Marco Polo Hotel in this city.

According to him, climate change is not like a typhoon that will visit the country once or twice but a day-to-day event.

He gave no details, however, about the sacked officials.

Meanwhile, he urged signatories of the Paris agreement on climate change to fulfill their obligations by reducing emission level to below two per cent.

He called on world powers to do their share in stemming climate change by curbing their carbon emissions.

He also said he could not fathom how the withdrawal of a powerful country like the United States from its commitment to reduce carbon emissions could affect the whole scenario of saving the planet from disasters brought about by climate change especially as small countries like the Philippines bear the brunt of their effects.

The President said smaller countries often bore the brunt of climate change-related disasters and health hazards even as rich states accounted for significant carbon emissons. /atm