He was effective as president of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority. Later, he was moved to Department of Transportation to Department of Public Works and Highways. Vince Dizon proved to be again so effective in the DOTR. The line agencies in the department like the Land Transportation Office, Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board, Philippine Ports Authority and others functioned effectively when he became the top honcho. Then, comes public anger because of uncovered corruption in DPWH and corresponding actions are needed. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. made a deep selection who can head the public works which has become like an Aegean stable and has to be cleaned. BBM found in Dizon the criteria needed.
This is a small story to tell. I served as a member of the board of the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) for several years. I shared the board room with notable people, the likes of former Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Narciso Abaya, a West Pointer, Al Santos, an economist and a college professor, former Philippine Navy Flag Officer in Command (FOIC) Ferdinand ‘Toto’ Golez, former Social System System and Union Bank President Rene Valencia, the late Chito Gascon who became Human Rights Commission Chairman and few more others who were all known newsmakers at sometime. Zero corruption there, as far as I know.
In my years of stint in BCDA I collected fond memories of my own which I will carry to the grave. Those discussions and arguments with the country’s best minds, the likes of former Congressman Tong Payumo, lawyer Arnel Casanova, a University of the Philippine professor, Mel Alonzo former president of the PAG-IBIG fund, Boots Garcia, a former senior official of SGV and so many other people with high intelligence.
Now many of us already faded out from public view, and busy with other enterprises, like Tong Payumo who is busy with his Sinag-Tala resort in Orani, Bataan and me on my writings on this op-Ed section and for a time wit my TRENDING MAX tri-weekly show on Cable CTV 3, until it was closed by the pandemic. There are always new people that will run a state agency. It is normal for new president of the republic to pick his own team. Casanova ‘s replacement was Dizon, whose late father whom I call Cong Esting. He was from Porac town and also called Capas, Tarlac his home for they owned a large estate there. Of course one of the most challenging jobs in the government is to become president of BCDA. It is far bigger in responsibilities than any of the agencies of government.
Vince Dizon was the Steph Curry of BCDA. He was a high scorer. He is a spitfire. He always wanted to be a winner despite the odds. He has an impeccable credentials to head the agency. He had a plate full as BCDA president as he was deeply involved in the former President Duterte’s Build, Build, Build program. He was also behind the full acceleration of the upgrading of the Clark International Airport.
Why BCDA ? It’s because the agency finished the SCTEX, a 93 kilometer road without spending a single centavo, and after it was finished it was grabbed by the MVP group and came up with an upfront cash of several billions that made the government's treasury richer. Earnings in billions of pesos are being poured to finance many government expenditures, the biggest of which goes to the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ modernization.
All former US military installations are titled to BCDA,the likes of Clark Freeport, John Hay, Poro Point and other areas are considered estates. The disposition of the more than 300 hectares Fort Bonifacio sometimes meet problems. The John Hay controversy is still far from over. The planned 9,000 hectares of Clark Green City in Capas is still one big challenge because a large chunk of the property was considered ancestral domain by virtue of an ancestral domain title. Vince Dizon shouldn't fail, even the DPWH is the domain of the corrupt. The Dizons’ roots are from my hometown of Porac. His lawyer father and many Dizon kins are not used to failures. ( Francisco S. Dizon of Dizon Farms in Davao City and Celestino Dizon of Dizon Mines are two examples). I venture to conclude that DPWH will be cleaned and maybe can be back again in its glorious years with Vince at the helm. Keeping our fingers crossed.