Sagittarius Mines Inc. has denied that Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III has any financial interests in the company after reports surfaced that several officials in the industry were making decisions that would benefit their own interests.
“(SMI) formally and unequivocally states that (Dominguez) does not have nor has he ever had any financial or other interest in the corporation,” said Roy D. Antonio, corporate linkages manager at the company.
“This is an incontrovertible fact, which is supported by the required filings submitted by the corporation to pertinent government agencies as required by law.”
Antonio said the company felt compelled to release a statement “in light of several continuing and malicious reports from certain quarters.”
Dominguez and his family are rumored to have stakes in mining companies, such as Alsons, Lafayette Philippines, Philex, United Paragon Mining and SMI. His brother Paul Dominguez is an executive of SMI.
Environmental group Kalikasan-People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikaan-PNE) said the government should investigate Dominguez, who may have benefited from his pro-mining stance that ran counter the crackdown on irresponsible mining led by former Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) secretary Gina Lopez.
Dominguez is also the cochairman of the DENR-Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC). The group is reviewing Lopez’s mine closure and suspension orders.
In February, Lopez canceled the environmental clearance certificate for SMI’s planned $5.9-billion Tampakan copper-gold project in South Cotabato. The project site spans 10,000 hectares and is said to be one of the largest copper mines in the world.
