Manila: Five new officers of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) were formally sworn into office by Secretary Vivencio Dizon on Monday. The new undersecretaries are Arrey Perez for Operations in charge of Convergence Projects and Technical Services; Arthur Bisnar for Regional Operations; Charles Calima Jr. for Special Concerns; Samuel Rufino Turgano for Legal Services; and Ricardo Bernabe III for the Office of the Secretary. They were appointed by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. amid the ongoing reform in the agency.
According to Philippines News Agency, it can be recalled that the Chief Executive ordered Dizon to cleanse the DPWH amid the supposed involvement of its officials in the flood control mess. The individuals who are being implicated in the controversy range from former secretaries, undersecretaries, and regional directors, down to rank-and-file staff.
Meanwhile, the Blockchain Council of the Philippines (BCP) has formally partnered with the DPWH to launch Integrity Chain, a blockchain-powered platform designed to embed transparency, accountability, and public trust into national infrastructure projects. In a memorandum of agreement signed on Tuesday, Dizon and BCP president Dr. Donald Patrick Lim committed to digitizing and securing key data on selected national projects -- such as budgets, procurement processes, and construction milestones -- on an immutable blockchain ledger accessible to the public.
Dizon emphasized the importance of the initiative by stating, 'By placing our foreign-assisted project, those funded by Official Development Assistance, on the Integrity Chain, we welcome the scrutiny of the private sector, academe, and civil society. This is DPWH's strong response to the President's directive to ensure transparency and accountability are enforced for its projects.'
The Integrity Chain aims to transform infrastructure governance by offering a real-time public dashboard that tracks project spending and progress, enabling citizen feedback and anomaly reporting, and providing tamper-proof records to deter corruption. 'For the first time, the private sector isn't just demanding integrity. We're building the infrastructure to deliver it,' Lim said.
Initially, the BCP will provide the DPWH with a one-year complimentary subscription to the Integrity Chain, which includes technical support, training, and cybersecurity measures in full compliance with the Data Privacy Act. Department of Information and Communications Technology Secretary Henry Aguda expressed support for the collaboration, encouraging a new approach to governance through technology.
The launch held at the Asian Institute of Management also drew participation from major international development and lending agencies, including the Japan International Cooperation Agency, Korean Eximbank, Asian Development Bank, and the World Bank's Road Transport and Country Operations. The agencies are key funders of the DPWH's foreign-assisted flagship infrastructure projects under the 'Build Better More' program and implemented by the Unified Project Management Office Clusters, which will be the first to be recorded on the Integrity Chain.