Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon on Monday ordered the mass resignation of officials across the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), launching a sweeping purge after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. decried ghost and substandard projects that have worsened flooding nationwide.
Dizon said the directive covers undersecretaries, assistant secretaries, division heads, regional directors and district engineers.
The move, he explained, is part of President Marcos’ call to “clean house” following a series of inspections that exposed incomplete or defective flood control facilities in Bulacan and Baguio City.
Dizon recalled joining Mr. Marcos in recent inspections in both areas, where the President expressed anger over incomplete and poorly built flood control projects.
In Calumpit, Bulacan, residents told President Marcos that flooding has become part of their daily lives—a scene that Dizon said fueled the chief executive’s frustration.
“We need to fix this. I cannot accept, and neither can our President, that we will just sit and watch on TV while our countrymen suffer every day,” Dizon said. “It is unacceptable.”
Among the immediate measures he plans to implement is that contractors behind the reported ghost and substandard projects will face lifetime blacklisting and possible criminal charges.
“First of all, I will impose a lifetime blacklisting, ban, immediately. If a contractor’s project is a ghost project or proven to be substandard, there will be no process, no investigation, that contractor will be automatically blacklisted for life,” Dizon said.
An independent commission will be created to probe anomalies, while all personnel implicated in fraudulent projects will be removed and prosecuted.
“That also has a corresponding case, and everything we obtain will be passed on to the independent commission that our President will establish,” Dizon explained.
Dizon also vowed a revamp of the Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board (PCAB) in coordination with the Department of Trade and Industry, noting its role in allowing irregular projects.
He added that the administration will pursue a “massive, unprecedented” effort to address chronic flooding in Metro Manila and other provinces, working with local governments and the private sector.
“This cannot be solved overnight. It took decades of neglect and corruption, but we have to start now,” Dizon said.
