MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Ping Lacson said a fresh generation of civil servants would be needed to overhaul the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) that has become rotten due to “boundless greed.”
Lacson said DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon may check the private sector for licensed civil engineers who bring with them a culture of accountability and integrity.
“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 posted on X Saturday afternoon.
Dizon ordered the courtesy resignation of all DPWH officials when he assumed his post to clean up the agency.
The DPWH is hounded by a major controversy involving substandard and ghost flood control projects due to the alleged collusion of lawmakers, some of its officials and contractors in pocketing public funds.
The Senate president pro tempore said that over P1.9 trillion had been appropriated to the DPWH for flood control projects since 2011, yet the flooding problem persists.
In privileged speeches last Aug. 20 and Sept. 9, Lacson detailed the “boundless greed” and corruption among DPWH engineers, some of whom gamble away hundreds of millions of pesos in casinos.
Worse, he noted new money-making schemes allegedly by junior DPWH personnel, including additional requirements priced at thousands of pesos per page – on top of the regular commissions and “obligations” contractors are made to pay.
