“Let’s wish Secretary Dizon well and hope he succeeds”.
FROM out of the blue, we now have a new DOTr Chief with Secretary Jaime Bautista leaving due to health issues.
Whether that is really the case, he is leaving the Department as the 19th chief after almost three years at the helm.
One may therefore be tempted to ask whether he is leaving the DOTr or the country’s transportation system in a better shape than when he found it.
On this, I say he will be known as the foremost exponent of privatizing public transportation. That is not to say that such is bad per se.
Throughout my long years of public service, I spent a lot of time on transportation related work.
And, yes, I was even detailed to the then Department of Transportation and Communications several months after its establishment in 1979.
I also had to work and coordinate with the DOTr frequently when I handled traffic management in the NCR during the FVR administration. This gave me the opportunity to observe the people who were appointed to the exulted position of DOTr Secretary and how they met the challenges of the job.
Of all the many heads of that Department, only one was an engineer. He was the late Jose P. Dans Jr. the first Secretary of the DOTr when it was separated from the DPWH in 1979.
He remains to my mind the one with the greatest impact perhaps because it was he who started the ball rolling. It was during his time that LRT1 was started.
With regard to the EDSA traffic, he started the phase out of the jeepneys and tricycles along EDSA which was unfortunately reversed by the first Aquino administration.
The number of bus operators along EDSA and elsewhere were also reduced to 10 bus cooperatives with specific non-competing routes. These were abandoned when the first Aquino administration took over and allowed the unrestricted number of bus operators along EDSA to come back.
Most of the buses used were imported from China which broke down frequently along with second hand imported buses from China and South Korea.
Most of the rail lines being built today were recommendations made during his term as DOTr Secretary.
The DOTr under him also started helping some cities like Zamboanga, Baguio and Olongapo plan their public transport system and enhanced the training capability of the recently established UP traffic training center which has since been expanded.
Had his successors improved on what he started instead of abolishing and reversing many of them, the problems of traffic and public transportation being experienced today would not be as much.
Another example was the traffic operation center set up during his time with the DPWH.
Had that been maintained and modernized instead of being allowed to deteriorate, the traffic signal system of the Metro Area would have been automated instead of its current state.
Former Secretary Jaime Bautista was a pilot and managed the Philippine Airlines.
If there was anyone who could have matched the late Secretary JP Dans Jr, it would be him but right now his impact is more on air transportation due to his background.
That is why many airport projects have been initiated. Air transportation, however, has the least problems among the country’s transport modes. It is land transportation that needs the most attention because our transportation system is still basically land based.
But let’s meet the new DOTr Secretary, Vivencio Dizon. An economist by training, he was president and CEO of BCDA and did work during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He has a reputation of a doer. Whether that is enough in a highly technical job, we have to wait and see.
The job is daunting because the DOTr Secretary has the responsibility of directing and managing the efficient movement of goods and people throughout the country.
And because about 15 per cent of the country’s population lives in the greater Metro Manila area that accounts for 36 percent of the country’s GDP, a great part of that responsibility is centered in the NCR whose traffic and public transport system needs fixing and full attention.
Let’s wish him well and hope he succeeds.