Press Release
October 12, 2016

SPONSORSHIP SPEECH ON THE CONFIRMATION OF SECRETARY CARLOS G. DOMINGUEZ
By SEN. FRANCIS N. PANGILINAN
Chairman, Committee on Finance
Senate Session Hall
12 October 2016

Mr. Chairman, distinguished colleagues, the Committee on Finance conducted its first public hearing this morning to hear and deliberate on the ad interim appointment of Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez issued by and submitted to this Commission by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte.

As chairman of the Committee on Finance, it is my distinct privilege and honor to recommend to the plenary the confirmation of the ad interim appointment of the subject appointee, Secretary Dominguez of the Department of Finance.

Sharing the same birthday as Singapore's founding father Lee Kwan Yew, Secretary Carlos Garcia Dominguez was born after the end of World War II on September 16, 1945 in Zamboanga.

Secretary Dominguez is a fruit of Jesuit education. He went to Ateneo de Davao for grade school and high school, and later to Ateneo de Manila University, where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree, major in Economics, in 1965 and then his Master in Business Administration degree in 1969. His widely known and respected diligence and work ethic had its seeds in his primary and secondary education which he finished with honors and as salutatorian, respectively.

Starting 1965, while he worked on his MBA, he was also management trainee of Citibank, moving up the corporate ladder to become finance manager of Rubicon Inc., to executive vice president of AMS Farming Corp., and then again as EVP of JVA Management Corp. From 1983 to 1986, he concurrently held the position of vice president of Bank of Philippine Islands and president of the BPI Agricultural Development Bank.

He continued to conquer the business world in areas as far-ranging as agriculture, real estate, and retail. Immediately prior to this appointment, he was president of seven companies, including PTFC Redevelopment Corp., C.G. Dominguez and Associates Inc., Halifax Davao Hotel Inc., Linden Suites Inc., and Retail Specialist Inc. On top of all that, he was also director of seven other companies. In 1986, he heeded the call of public service to rebuild the nation, and served briefly first as Undersecretary of the Department of Agriculture, then one year as Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources, and then two years as Secretary of Agriculture, before returning to the private sector.

The career of Secretary Dominguez reads like a handbook for corporate success. He was chairman and president of Philippine Airlines Inc., president and chairman of Philippine Associated Smelting and Refining Company, and country chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Lafayette Philippines Inc.

He was chairman of RCBC Capital Corp. and later its independent director. He was director of IPVG Corp., Manila Electric Corp., Roxas Holdings Inc., and Northern Mindanao Power Corp.

Even after leaving the Cabinet, Secretary Dominguez continued to lend his financial acumen to government, serving as director of Land Bank of the Philippines from March 1986 to January 1990, and chairman of Republic Planters Bank from March 1988 to January 1992.

The Secretary is a member of various civic and social organizations, primarily the Philippine Eagle Foundation, where he served as treasurer and then as its chairman up to the present.

In the brief period he headed the Department of Agriculture, Secretary Dominguez introduced various reforms, first in the rural credit system with the establishment of the Comprehensive Agricultural Loan Fund (CALF) in 1987. His administration started the Livelihood Enhancement for Agricultural Development (LEAD) program in 1988 to speed up farmers' organizations access to financing, management expertise, and marketing. Agriculture and Fishery Councils (AFCs) were also set up at the sectoral, regional, provincial, and municipal levels to provide inputs on major programs and policy decisions and help plan and monitor DA projects.

As one of the most trusted members of the Duterte Cabinet, Secretary Dominguez seeks to build on the success of the previous administration and make the country's economic growth more inclusive. In media interviews, he has affirmed his commitment to develop the rural areas and to generate more job opportunities in the countryside by modernizing agriculture, articulating what I also believe, that "Farming should no longer be the poverty trap it has been for generations." In all the numerous positions Secretary Dominguez has held, I would like to repeat what the Ateneo de Davao University said in 1997, when it conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Humanities, honoris causa: Secretary Dominguez has put his managerial talents toward the development of the country, particularly of Mindanao, through the professional management of its resources.

Mr. Chairman, it is always a happy occasion to welcome honest, over-achieving people to government service. I have the honor to move for the confirmation of the Commission on plenary the ad interim appointment of the Secretary of the Department of Finance of the Philippines, SECRETARY CARLOS G. DOMINGUEZ.

I so move, Mr. Chairman.

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