Lacson bats for new gen to fix ‘rotten’ DPWH

Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” Lacson has called for a sweeping generational change within the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), urging newly appointed Secretary Vince Dizon to bring in a new breed of professionals to cleanse the agency of entrenched corruption

Lacson lamented that the DPWH has become “rotten” from top to bottom due to what he described as “boundless greed” that continues to plague the department.

Assuming all DPWH officials submitted their courtesy resignations, Sec. Vince may start hiring licensed civil engineers from the private sector, still untainted by corruption and trained by corporate best practices; then create a new generation of professional civil servants,” Lacson wrote in his X (formerly Twitter) post on Sunday.

The senator’s remarks come in the wake of Secretary Dizon’s bold move to demand the courtesy resignation of all DPWH officials shortly after assuming office, an effort aimed at clearing the ranks and restoring credibility to one of the most critical infrastructure agencies in the country.

The DPWH is currently mired in controversy over alleged substandard and ghost flood control projects. Despite over P1.9 trillion being allocated for flood control since 2011, flooding continues to plague major parts of the country.

Lacson earlier laid bare a grim picture of systemic corruption, citing engineers who reportedly gamble away hundreds of millions of pesos of taxpayers’ money in casinos.

He further detailed new schemes allegedly being run by younger personnel, including charging contractors thousands of pesos per page for additional documentation. These are fees that come on top of standard “commissions” and unofficial “obligations.”

“Boundless greed. Rotten at the top, rotten at the bottom,” Lacson said. 

“Learning fast from their superiors, even official and ‘invented’ documents have become sources of ill-gotten income at the lower echelons of the DPWH’s district engineering offices,” he further lamented.