• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Bacolod City Lone District Rep. Alfredo Abelardo Benitez on Monday (Sept. 1) described the appointment of Vince Dizon as the secretary of the Department of Public Works and Highways a “welcome and necessary development”.
It will now allow President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to clean house at the DPWH, he added.
Benitez, who earlier called for Manuel Bonoan to immediately resign as DPWH secretary, said his stepping down is long overdue.
“It is something that should have happened a long time ago,” the Bacolod lawmaker said.
Benitez said: “When we repeatedly raised the need for Secretary Bonoan to step down, it was precisely to pave the way for new leadership with the competence and credibility to immediately confront the deep-seated systemic issues hounding the agency, especially, corruption.”
Dizon, coming from outside the entrenched structures of the DPWH, is in a position to look at its problems with a fresh eye, he added.
Benitez said Dizon’s track record in quickly addressing the problems in the Department of Transportation “gives us confidence that he can restore integrity, transparency, and efficiency to one of the government’s most critical departments”.
Upon his assumption as DPWH secretary, Dizon said he will require the courtesy resignation of all agency officials, following Marcos’ directive to purge the department amid alleged irregularities in multibillion-peso flood control projects.
Dizon said the move marks the start of a “clean sweep” to restore public trust, ensure transparency, and guarantee that every peso spent in infrastructure truly serves the Filipino people. | GB
