The Commission on Appointments today confirmed the ad interim appointment of Carlos Dominguez III as Secretary of Finance.

Senator Francis Pangilinan, who chairs the CA committee on finance, recommended the confirmation of Dominguez’s appointment, citing “his widely known and respected diligence and work ethic.”

“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,” Pangilinan said in his sponsorship speech on Dominguez’s confirmation in this afternoon’s CA plenary session.

“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,’ ” he added.

Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto, Senators Loren Legarda and Juan Miguel Zubiri seconded Pangilinan’s motion to have Dominguez’s appointment confirmed by the CA in the plenary session, which was presided over by Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III.

In seconding the motion to confirm Dominguez’s appointment, Recto said “that if the present crew of secretaries has been referred to as the professors who replaced the ‘student council,’ I consider the nominee as its dean.”

Zubiri said: “His integrity, dedication and love for country is beyond reproach.”

During the hearing held this morning by the finance committee on Dominguez’s nomination, Pangilinan noted that all the members of the CA in the Senate, and the House, except for one who is on official business overseas, were present, highlighting the importance of his position as finance chief.

“I think this is the first time that a Secretary of Finance was also a former Secretary of Agriculture, and my bias has always been, at least in the last five years, agriculture, and this is a welcome development,” said Pangilinan, who also chairs the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food.
Former Senate President Franklin Drilon, who is now the Senate President Pro-Tempore, said: “I support the confirmation of Secretary Dominguez because of the challenges he faces on all fronts.”

During the committee hearing, Legarda likewise expressed her support for Dominguez’s confirmation describing him as a “man of competence and integrity, a very hardworking Cabinet official [who] deserves our immediate confirmation.”

Senator Panfilo Lacson cited Dominguez’s “impressive credentials,” adding that “his reputation precedes him.”

Senator Manny Pacquiao said in backing Dominguez’s confirmation: “I have no doubt on his capability to manage our economy.”

Dominguez is not new to government work. He was formerly Minister of the Environment and Natural Resources, and then Secretary of Agriculture during the post-Martial Law administration.

He is a successful businessman, with several high-end hotels under his portfolio such as the Marco Polo in Davao.

Dominguez’s extensive experience in the business sector culminated in several memberships in the boards of various sectors/industries.

He is the chairman of the board of trustees of the Philippine Eagle Foundation, a non-stock, non-profit organization that aims to save the endangered Philippine eagle from extinction and protect its forest habitats.

With a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and an MBA from Ateneo, Dominguez brings to the DOF a very rich and balanced view in making the hard decisions for the improvement of the Philippine economy in the coming years.

In his current position as finance chief in the Duterte administration, Dominguez s spearheading the passage of a comprehensive tax reform program that aims to lower personal and corporate income tax rates while raising revenues to fund the government’s planned accelerated spending on infrastructure, human capital development and social protection for the country’s vulnerable sectors.

The tax reform program that Dominguez is pushing aims to overhaul the decades-old tax system to make it fairer, simpler and more efficient, while at the same time, laying the groundwork that would enable the government to raise an extra P1 trillion yearly for unparalleled public investments meant to reduce the poverty rate from the current 26 percent to 17 percent in six years’ time and eventually transform the Philippines into a high-income state by 2040.