Dynamo

He assumed the post burdened with high expectations. He has not disappointed – so far.

Vince Dizon gained national prominence while the the pandemic raged. He was pulled from his duties at the BCDA (where he delivered an Olympics-standard sports facility under time pressure) to help oversee government’s response to the scourge. He put together a procurement and logistics system in the midst of a nationwide lockdown that somehow worked.

When Jimmy Bautista resigned his post, wearied by the job, Vince Dizon was recalled from the private sector to handle the Department of Transportation (DOTr). The agency was plagued with every imaginable challenge. Leading it should daunt even the most competent manager.

The DOTr deals with airports that are way below international standards, land transport agencies that could not even deliver license plates to motorists, an expensive subway system bogged down by right-of-way issues, a jeepney modernization program that continues to be resisted, a rail system that has been delayed by decades and so on and so forth. In every one of them, the issues are complex and solutions are not simple.

Two months into the job, Vince Dizon impresses us. Against the backdrop of a largely lackadaisical Cabinet that appears to be more concerned about public relations than with delivering lasting results, the DOTr secretary stands out.

The first real test of his leadership mettle was the Holy Week exodus where millions of Filipinos flee the cities at the same time, producing chaos on the roads, at the ports and airports. Vince put a plan in place. He personally inspected the travel nodes and issued instructions on the spot. All of a sudden, the impossible became eminently doable: no travel chaos happened this year.

The secret sauce here appears to be truly hands-on leadership. Vince has been an almost constant presence aboard trains, in the most congested ports and along our crowded roads. He did not just rely on reports. He went to see the problems himself.

When it seemed the dreadful “tanim-bala” syndicates were back in the game, he stepped in and dismissed the erring personnel. Likewise, he ordered the dismissal of LTO officers caught on video mistreating a motorcycle rider in Panglao, Bohol.

When a rash of road accidents happened, Vince suspended the licenses of 671 PUV drivers caught using drugs and were involved in traffic accidents during the Holy Week rush. No quarters will be given for those who endanger road users.

Being up and about enabled the transport secretary to listen to his constituency, which Vince is very good at. When commuters said they wanted service hours for the commuter trains to be extended, Vince obliged. When PUV drivers asked to be allowed to ply their routes pending the extended transition to modern vehicles, Vince allowed them to. When toll road customers suggested cash payments remain, Vince asked the tollway companies to extend the courtesy.

Vince has impressed enough as a “troubleshooter” that some people want him cloned for the other government departments.

Angels

Home for the Angels has worked hard to deserve its name. Over the years, the charity has rescued over 900 babies, most of them near death, from trash piles and nourished them to health.

How so many babies were left to die is a troubling matter with no easy answers. Without going into root causes, however, Home for the Angels has committed itself to saving as many of them as possible within its limited means.

There is this story of an abandoned baby found to be suffering from leukemia. Doctors gave up on the infant; but Home for the Angels saw nourishing the baby as a Christian duty. The child survived and is now an athlete. A small miracle had happened.

Not all the rescued babies had happy endings. One infant found on the trash pile did not have a brain and was comatose. Home for the Angels administered to her needs until she expired.

Home for the Angels was founded with support from former Manila mayor Lito Atienza and family. Devout Catholics, the Atienza family abides by this charity as a concrete application of their pro-life beliefs.

For them, being pro-life is not just a dot on the ideological spectrum of lifestyle choices. It is a solemn affirmation of faith. It is a profound commitment to save every human life imperiled by adverse circumstances.

To complement the work of Home for the Angels and other charities to support senior citizens and marginalized communities, Lito Atienza helped organize Buhay party-list. As committed to life as Home for the Angels is, the party-list group affirms a staunch pro-life agenda in our legislative branch.

In his first three terms as Buhay representative, Atienza consistently opposed proposals to allow abortion on demand. He likewise almost single-handedly blocked restoration of the death penalty – a convenient, although inappropriate, response to criminality.

On the ballot in the forthcoming elections are numerous party-list groups, some exploit ethnolinguistic identities to front for vested dynastic interests. Others conveniently “borrow” the names of government programs such as “4Ps,” a practice the Supreme Court ruled against when it disqualified a party-list named Movement against Drugs (MAD) years ago. Still others rely on the endorsements of celebrities to win votes.

Only a handful, Buhay foremost among them, are participating to advocate a clear and unshakable belief. Their involvement is rooted in devotion, not transaction.