There’s a hilarious before-and-after meme going around featuring Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon referencing job applicants and a popular tune of 1980s British rock band The Smiths.
The ‘Before DPWH’ photo shows Dizon all smiles and dapper in a casual business suit beaming at the camera. The ‘after’ photo has Dizon, now Public Works Secretary, dressed in a crumpled shirt and rain jacket, his face all scrunched-up in frustration and hair askew, while he is in the field probably inspecting another substandard flood project. The meme’s caption goes (sing it with me): ‘I was looking for a job and then I found a job, and heaven knows I’m miserable now..’
I don’t know what possessed Sec. Vince to accept the job as Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) chief, when he was hardly finished with his work at the Department of Transportation (DOTr). I, for one, was still hoping he could order the construction of an escalator or elevator at the MRT Ortigas station. That is probably the worst hiking experience for commuters ever-after the legendary Mount Kamuning pedestrian footbridge.
(But as one former Cabinet Secretary told me, when I lightly ridiculed him about accepting his position, ‘You can’t say ‘No’ to the President.’ I of course retorted flippantly, ‘Yes you can!’)
But as difficult as the job Sec. Vince had to do in DOTr-although the cleanup there had already been initiated by his immediate predecessor, former airline executive Jimmy Bautista-the job of auditing and inspecting DPWH flood-control projects is probably not just exhausting but most likely depressing, as one can imagine. A trillion pesos in substandard or ghost flood-control projects in the past decade?! And yet we have floods everywhere?!?!
That staggering amount made me wince in utter grief and frustration.but, yes, anger soon followed-the reason I went out of my home, like so many thousands of other Filipinos all over the country on Sunday, September 21, to protest the continuing corruption in government. Ironically, it was the 53rd anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law in the Philippines by the current President’s father, the late strongman Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr.-a name also synonymous with corruption.
It was Marcos Jr., of course, who opened the.uhmmm.floodgate of allegations and investigations into these DPWH projects, after he called out their irregularities and the possible collusion of some government executives. He later named 15 private construction companies which implemented these highly questionable projects.
And while both houses of Congress continue their respective probes into the flood-control mess, along with the President’s own recently formed investigation body, the Independent Commission on Infrastructure, Sen. Loren Legarda, rightly so, recently raised the possibility that the corruption in DPWH may also cover other projects it implements for government agencies like the Departments of Health (DOH), Education (DepEd), Agriculture (DA), and Tourism (DOT).
Under the current setup, funds are lodged with the DOH, DepEd, and DA for infrastructure projects. These agencies then download these funds to the DPWH to construct those projects as it has the engineering expertise. (For tourism roads, funds for their construction are directly allocated to the DPWH, since the law doesn’t provide the DOT any infrastructure construction function, per se.)
During the hearing of DOT’s budget on September 25, Legarda demanded: ‘How would we know, as I said, health centers and hospitals, tourism roads, farm-to-market roads, DepEd school buildings, all DPWH [projects, have been completed?] If there could be some standard, or even goals in the DPWH for their own organic projects, what more the other agencies? Baka naman nabibiktima ang mga ibang departments?’
She continued, ‘If we allocate [project funds] in the other departments to be implemented by an agency, which has gained notoriety of late, and inaamin nila [that] this is this is what happens, we might be wasting the whole national budget, right?’
The senior lawmaker likewise instructed Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco not to rely on the reports of the DPWH regarding the status of tourism roads, and instead have the latter’s own regional executives visit these projects for more accurate reporting.
Frasco had said during the budget hearing that 882.28 kilometers of tourism roads were completed by the DPWH from 2022 to 2024, under the Tourism Road Infrastructure Program (TRIP). These projects cost over P46 billion.
To recap, the DOT and DPWH jointly forged TRIP in 2012, under the terms of then Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. and then Public Works chief Rogelio ‘Babes’ Singson. The convergence program calls on both agencies to agree on priority tourism roads that have to be built. These roads are designed to connect vital infrastructure like airports or seaports to resorts and hotels in key tourism destinations.
Following Senator Legarda’s own questions regarding the credibility of the DPWH’s tourism roads report, an agency insider told me that the Secretary will also have these projects probed. ‘It’s in Sec. Vince’s plan. We’re just gathering momentum to investigate those projects, too,’ my source assured.
So Sec. Vince certainly has more than enough work on his head, his shoulders, his hands, and his feet. Thank goodness he is young enough to have the energy to keep going around and inspecting all these DPWH projects. (I guess he has been hard-pressed to delegate the inspections as he is unsure how far corruption in the agency goes, and who can actually be trusted to give him honest monitoring reports.)
Sec. Vince should take loads of vitamins and minerals to keep up with the demands of his job.
Meanwhile, lawmakers-especially those alleged to have received kickbacks on these irregular DPWH projects- and officials of this administration have been put on notice. Judging from the numbers that joined the protest marches and rallies last September 21, we, the Filipino taxpayers, are not having any of this foolishness. We are keeping a close watch on the goings on attending this flood-control mess. And we are hoping something good for the country eventually comes out of these investigations, after all the hearings have been wrapped up.