PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte’s trips abroad have raised a total of $33 billion as compared to the P270-million incurred expenses from his foreign travels, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said Tuesday.
“That is equivalent to spending something like 17 centavos per every P1,000 that he has raised in investments and loans,” Dominguez said in a press briefing in Malacañang.
“For me that is a very significant figure. You know, sometimes when we talk of millions and billions, we forget the relationship, right? This is the relationship of the expenses of the President with regards to the benefits that he has been able to bring home or as the journalists like to say, ‘the bacon that he brought home,’” he explained.
The Department of Finance is presently negotiating with Chinese officials regarding the $9 billion in Official Development Assistance, as well as commercial loans.
He said the DoF is likewise discussing with the Japanese government in response to the announcement of Prime Minister Abe during his recent visit to the country that Japan has committed another $9 billion more or less in ODA and commercial loans.
At the same briefing, Dominguez clarified that the mining shares that were reported in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth belonged to his son.
Dominguez, the richest man in President Duterte’s Cabinet denied any involvement in any mining operations in the country, amid earlier insinuations of Environment Secretary Regina Lopez about his involvement in the Tampacan open pit mine.
“That was a gift to my son by my mother [when he was born in 1967]. And we have not transferred it to his name,” Dominguez said in a Palace press briefing. “I am not involved in any mine at the moment.”
Dominguez, in his SALN has at least 5,000 shares in listed company Philex Mining Corp., the largest gold and copper producer in the Philippines since 1967.
Dominguez stressed that he was only involved in mining twice in his life as chief executive officer of a copper smelting company and as part of a team that rehabilitated the mine in Rapu-Rapu.
“That is the date when my son was born. My mother had some shares… By the way, she’s 93 years old already. I don’t think she remembers some shares she has. I’m not sure she has anymore. But she gave my son a gift when he was born,” he added.