Sec Vince gets defensive

Department of Public Works and Highways Secretary Vince Dizon is a very busy man, so much so that he  spent less than 20 minutes at the infrastructure forum arranged by the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines held  last Monday, Oct. 19 at the Insular Life Building along Paseo de Roxas and Ayala Avenue in Makati.

He said that he had been called to attend a meeting in Malacañang and, thus, could not stay longer and participate in the Q& A session.

The DPWH Secretary spent less than 20 minutes delivering his speech. Perhaps  I should describe it as more of a long explanation as to why he has no

infrastructure plan to talk about. Instead, what we heard from him was the difficulty he faces in dealing with  one of the most corrupt Philippine government departments.

President Marcos tasked him to handle the DPWH after pulling him away from the Department of Transportation where he had been assigned to replace former DOTR secretary Jaime Bautista.

Dizon had barely warmed his seat at the Transport department when he was thrust into dealing with an agency mired in the flood-control controversy.

He actually has a very good relationship with business reporters due to his previous stint in government when he was with the Bases Conversion and Development Authority Secretary Vince is supposed to get the government’s main infrastructure agency back on track with building important projects that are key to pump-priming our ailing economy.

Mind you, the  EJAP Infrastructure Forum was not a spur of the moment event. It had taken months to arrange and coordinate all the speakers for an informative half-day session.

Thus, we would have expected Secretary Dizon to have prepared as well, and if something had come up at the last minute, at least assign his undersecretary or representative to do an informative presentation on what the Marcos administration plans to do in its last two years, at a crucial time when the local economy needs government to take the lead in funding economic activity through construction of vital public works and structures.

Business reporters who attended the half-day forum were expecting to hear  a comprehensive briefing from the DPWH Secretary on the state of the department’s infrastructure projects, including the controversial flood control projects that have rocked the country.

We were hoping to hear about the government’s infrastructure plans and share that  information with the business sector.

Unfortunately, Secretary Vince did not  prepare a presentation. What he did talk about and highlight is his mission to help reform the DPWH and the difficulty of embarking on such a task.

Secretary Vince admitted that he is very much aware of criticism from the media that “si Secretary Vince, puro inspection, puro turo-turo...I respect that. I respect the Fourth Estate’s view that, having seen DPWH secretaries come and go, and projects not being finished... I respect that. And that is a very, very valid point.”

However, he explained that his inspections have a purpose. “These inspections that  we have been doing, and will continue to do, are vital.” He pointed out, “the culture of these departments, unfortunately, is really a culture of just leaving things as they are. There is zero sense of urgency in these departments.”

He cited, “a distinct engineer sees a road unfinished... bale wala....an unfinished bridge, bale wala . They don’t care. That is the prevailing culture.”

The same culture, he adds, is also present in the DOTR, “you go to LTO, the prevailing culture, fixers...They don’t care. “

But, according to Sec Vince, if the Secretary himself  does not go visit the departments and personally points out what is wrong and warns them of the consequences, they won’t change.

(If the Secretary himself does not go there and says, hey, di pwe-pwede ito. Kailangan may timeline, kailangan kayo may quality control, kailangan kayo on budget...kung hindi kulong kayo. Not to mention, magnakaw kayo, kulong kayo. iI we don’t do it, di magbabago, and we’ve seen it).

On the other hand, Sec Vince said that  after breathing down on their necks, after 60 or 45 days, the departments do their work. (We have seen pag pinukpok namin sila, six months matatapos, 45 days matatapos.) “And that is really the reason for that.”

“But the point here is, it is absolutely necessary. And we would love to see the day where we never have to do that. When a district engineer or regional director would  do that himself...for ourselves. I would love to see that day. Unfortunately, we’re not there yet... We’re not there yet. We’ll get there, I hope. Maybe when there are more people in jail...and stay in jail. But we’re not there yet.”

The DPWH, according to Sec Vince, has more than 70,000 people. “That’s how big this organization is. The only bigger  department  is probably the Department of Education. But It’s hard. It’s like, as they say, you have an oil tanker.  It’s so hard to turn it. It’s so hard to turn this huge ship.”

“It’s so hard. It’s so ingrained, its culture of apathy, walang malasakit, pagnanakaw, no sense of urgency. It’s so hard. But we have to do it slowly and we have to keep on pounding again. These are the reforms we’ve tried to do.”

Add to that he said, is the need for transparency, acknowledging complaints about the difficulty in getting information and documents about projects.

Secretary Vince proudly pointed out that he has now addressed that issue with a digital portal where the public and media can now get data and documents on projects, bidding forms and contracts, including geo-tagging information about the exact location of where the project is to enable verification.