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Carlos Dominguez III
Carlos "Sonny" García Domínguez III (born September 16, 1945)[1] is a distinguished Filipino businessman who was appointed as Philippine Cabinet Secretary thrice: as Minister of Natural Resources (1986-1987), Secretary of Agriculture (1987-1989), and as Secretary of Finance (2016-2022).[2] He has over four decades of vast experience and an outstanding track record of achievements at the helm of various organizations in the public and private sectors. His expertise was borne out of his experiences as a shareholder, CEO, and a board member of over a dozen corporations across multi-industries such as power, agriculture, mining, banking, hospitality, real estate, and investment. Early life and educationDomínguez comes from a prominent Zamboangueño family in Davao City. Born on September 16, 1945, in Zamboanga, he is the son of Carlos Domínguez, Jr. and Virginia Ubeda García. His grandfather Carlos Domínguez Sr. was a pre-World War II head of the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) in Mindanao.[3] He grew up in Davao and attended elementary and high school at the Ateneo de Davao University where he was a classmate of President Rodrigo Duterte.[4] He moved to Manila for his college studies at the Ateneo de Manila University. Domínguez graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics in 1965 and received a Master of Business Management from the same university in 1969. He also pursued post-graduate studies in California where he completed the Executive Program from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business in 1982.[5] Career and businessesFrom 1969 thru 1982, Dominguez managed agriculture-related enterprises ranging from agricultural machinery distribution and 5,000 hectares of farmland producing bananas for export, as well as coconuts, cacao, rice, and cattle. Dominguez joined the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) in 1983 as President of the BPI Agricultural Development Bank before being invited by President Corazon Aquino to join her administration. He assumed the leadership of the Ministry of Natural Resources in 1986 and the Department of Agriculturein 1987 while also serving as Director of the government-owned Land Bank of the Philippines.[4][5] After leaving government service in 1989, Dominguez entered the tobacco, energy, real estate, retail, hospitality, mining, and copper smelting industries and served as CEO of companies such as the Retail Specialist Inc., Philippine Tobacco Flue-Curing and Redrying Corp., Philippine Associated Smelting and Refining Corp. as well as Halifax Capital Resources Inc. (owner of two four-star hotels in the Philippines). He joined the Philippine Airlines in 1993 and served as its Chairman and CEO in the 1990s.[5] In his long business career after his first stint in government, Dominguez served on the boards of RCBC Capital Corp. House of Investments, Shangri-la Plaza Corp., Northern Mindanao Power Corp., Easycall Communications Philippines, Lafayette Philippines, Transnational Diversified Group, Central Azucarera Don Pedro, Roxas Holdings, and United Paragon Mining Corp. From 2001 to 2003, he served as Director of Meralco.[5] He was the treasurer of the successful 2016 presidential campaign of Rodrigo Duterte.[4] Dominguez III is an Independent director of GT Capital who replaced Pascual Garcia III.[6] Secretary of Finance Dominguez returned to government service on July 1, 2016, as President Duterte's Secretary of Finance, and led the implementation of the Duterte administration's ZERO-TO-TEN-POINT socioeconomic agenda.[7] As Secretary of Finance, Dominguez served as a member of the Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the Governor for the Philippines at the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Governor for the Philippines at the World Bank, and Alternate Governor for the Philippines at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). His post also made him ex-officio Chairman of various government-owned institutions – the Land Bank of the Philippines, the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC), the Social Security System (SSS), the Philippine Guarantee Corporation (PHILGUARANTEE), the Philippine Export-Import Credit Agency (PhilEXIM), the National Transmission Corporation (TransCo), the National Transmission Corporation (NPC), and the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM). As Secretary of Finance, he had supervision over the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), the Bureau of Customs (BOC), the Bureau of the Treasury (BTR), the Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF), the Insurance Commission (IC), the National Tax Research Center (NTRC), the Central Board of Assessment Appeal (CBAA), the Privatization Management Office (PMO), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp.(PCIC), and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS). Dominguez was also the chairperson of the Cabinet-level Economic Development Cluster. He also served as co-chair of the Intergovernmental Relations Body (IGRB), which is tasked to coordinate and resolve issues affecting the implementation of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) and the programs and projects of the national government in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). In addition, he was the President’s representative to the Climate Change Commission (CCC). Under his leadership, the Department of Finance (DOF) was able to draft and introduce to Congress the first of a series of the Duterte administration’s proposed tax reform packages known as the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Law (TRAIN) Act less than 90 days from the time he assumed the Cabinet portfolio in July 2016.[8] President Duterte signed into law the TRAIN Act on December 19, 2017, which reduced the personal income taxes for 99 percent of taxpayers in the country, giving them much-needed relief after 20 years of non-adjustment. TRAIN was followed by other successes in the legislature such as the passage of the Tax Amnesty Act, the Tobacco Tax Reform Law, and a Sin Tax Reform Law that raised excise taxes on alcohol and electronic cigarettes to help fund the Universal Health Care Program.[9][10][11] On Dominguez’s watch, the Philippines’ key revenue agencies—the BIR and the BOC continued to achieve strong revenue growth rates. It was also under his leadership that the BIR was able to collect its largest tax settlement from a single taxpayer in Philippine history amounting to PHP 30 billion or USD 600 million. Dominguez also succeeded in placing the Philippines in a more stable fiscal position by combating corruption and modernizing the country's tax collections and payments. He also led the enactment of the Rice Tariffication Act, which liberalized the Philippine rice market and, in turn, lowered the price of the country’s staple food for more than 100 million Filipinos.[12] Dominguez also led the funding efforts for the Duterte administration’s USD 170 billion Build! Build! Build! Infrastructure Program through concessional loans from partner countries and institutions, such as Japan, South Korea, China, the European Union, the United States, and from the World Bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), and the ADB. As a result, the government's infrastructure spending rose from a pre-2016 average of 2.5% to above 5% of the country’s GDP during the Duterte administration.[13][14] With Dominguez at the helm of the DOF, the Philippines maintained strong investor and consumer confidence and achieved credit rating upgrades from major credit rating agencies--Standard & Poor's, Moody's, Fitch Ratings, and the Japan Credit Rating Agency. The Philippines enjoyed a record low debt-to-GDP ratio of 39.6% in 2019 with Dominguez as head of the country’s economic team. Through bold tax reforms and better tax administration, he was also able to raise the Philippines’ revenue effort to 16.1% of GDP in 2019, the country’s best performance in more than two decades. During the pandemic, Dominguez spearheaded the funding of the country’s procurement of vaccines and direct responses to the economic downturn. The Philippines’ COVID-19 response program amounted to about PHP 3 trillion, equivalent to 15.6 percent of GDP. To help pandemic-hit businesses get back on their feet, Dominguez pushed for the enactment of COVID-19-recovery measures. These include the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act (CREATE), which gave tax breaks to 99 percent of business enterprises; and the Financial Institutions Strategic Transfer Act (FIST) to help relieve the banking system from bad loans and other non-performing assets. Dominguez was conferred by the President of the Philippines with the Order of Lakandula with the Rank of Grand Cross (Bayani) for his exemplary service to the nation. The Order of Lakandula is awarded to distinguished persons of political and civic merit. Dominguez was also conferred by the Emperor of Japan with the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun for exercising outstanding leadership in promoting cooperation between Japan and the Philippines. The recognition is the highest ordinarily conferred order in Japan. Personal lifeDomínguez is married to Cynthia "Ball" Andrews, the daughter of the late Colonel Antonio Andrews of the Philippine Air Force (PAF) Flying School Class of 1949, and one of the pioneers of the PAF. They have four children, Rafael, Mary Edwina, Ignacio, and Xavier, and six grandchildren. References
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