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Returning Transport secretary Vince Dizon officially turned over the Department of Public Works and Highways to its new head, outgoing acting Department of Transportation chief Giovanni Lopez
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Lopez said he will continue the systems change in DPWH as well as implement a cultural change among its workforce
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Dizon said one of his priorities will be fixing the Land Transportation Office, one of the marching orders of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.
Returning Transport secretary Vince Dizon has officially turned over the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to its new head, outgoing acting Department of Transportation (DOTr) chief Giovanni Lopez.
“I have every, every confidence in your capabilities. I’m not going to tell you right now that this is going to be easy. It’s not that easy. It’s not going to be easy. It’s a huge department. While the reforms are in place, (it’s) still not finished. There are a lot more that need fixing,” Dizon said partly in Filipino during a media briefing alongside the turnover ceremony on October 27.
Dizon acknowledged that they will not be able to solve everything but in the final less than two years of the current administration, what they will all do is work to provide even just a small relief to Filipinos.
“As the President said, we have to build the systems that will last. We have to build the systems so that the reforms will last,” he noted, adding that “The President has so much confidence in Sec. Banoy (Lopez).”
Strengthening system safeguards
Dizon said he believes reforms in DPWH will also be fast-tracked with Lopez as secretary, agreeing with what President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., through Presidential Communications Office secretary Lino Cayetano, has said that he thinks Lopez is a “systems builder”.
Cayetano earlier said the new DPWH head has been tasked to strengthen safeguards and institutionalize reforms made during Dizon’s term, “turning them into rules, processes and systems that will keep serving Filipinos even after this administration for decades to come.”
Moreover, Lopez has been directed to speed up roads, bridges, and other government infrastructure projects.
Dizon said Marcos’ directive to the two of them is to “disrupt the rotten system and make the reforms last.”
Lopez, during the same briefing, said Marcos has instructed him to make reforms made during Dizon’s term in DPWH to “work consistently” and “make it permanent, regardless of who sits in Malacanang, regardless of who sits as secretary of DPWH.”
He said Dizon has already started the “systems change” in DPWH and he will have to continue it. The other structural reform needed, which is also of importance, is “cultural change” in the officials and employees.
LTO top of the reform list
Dizon, meanwhile, said one of his priorities as he returns to DOTr will be to fix the Land Transportation Office, one of the orders given to him by Marcos.
Other directives include making the daily commute of Filipinos “a little easier” and to push completion of critical mass transport projects “so workers and students can spend less time on the road and more time with their families.”
Dizon on September 1, 2025 took the helm of DPWH from Manuel Bonoan, who resigned following the discovery of numerous questionable government-funded flood projects. Dizon was replaced by Lopez, who was undersecretary of DoTr prior to his appointment to lead the department on September 3.—Roumina Pablo
