Who Is Vince Dizon, the New Transportation Secretary?
The former BCDA chief takes the wheel.
(SPOT.ph) President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. has just appointed Vivencio "Vince" Dizon as the new Secretary of the Department of Transportation (DOTr). The appointment will be in effect beginning February 21, 2025.
Dizon replaces Jaime Bautista who held the post since June 2022. He resigned due to “health reasons.”
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Who is Vince Dizon?
Dizon might be best known for his role as former chief of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), but his career spans multiple sectors including government, academia, and consultancy.
Born in Quezon City in 1974, Dizon would however spend his growing up years in Porac, Pampanga. He earned dual degrees in Economics and Management of Financial Institutions from De La Salle University (DLSU) before earning a Master of Science in Applied Development Studies from the University of Reading in the United Kingdom.
He began as an economics research staff member and later worked as chief of staff for Senate President Edgardo Angara between 1996 and 2004. After a brief stint in academia—teaching Economics, Finance, and Statistics in the Czech Republic—Dizon returned to politics, taking on advisory roles.
He served as the Undersecretary for Political Affairs under President Benigno Aquino III and was consultant to then-Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano.
It was in 2016 when Dizon was appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte to lead BCDA, where he played a key role in the development of New Clark City as part of the “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program. Under Dizon's leadership, BCDA earned P48 billion in gross revenue—the highest recorded under any administration—making up nearly 40% of its total earnings in the last 27 years.
For this, PeopleAsia named Dizon one of its People of the Year in 2019.
“Past administrations tended to focus on Subic because they thought Clark had a long way to go," Dizon told the magazine. "But now, thanks to everyone’s collective efforts, Clark was catapulted to a level where everybody wants to be here!”
Most notable of his BCDA projects was the P11-billion construction of the New Clark City Sports Hub for the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, but this was eventually met with controversy. The Citizens Crime Watch Association filed a graft and malversation complaint against Dizon and three others, in which the group alleged irregularities in the construction of the sports facility.
In response, the BCDA said that it "stands by its position that the process undertaken for the construction of internationally-certified sports facilities in New Clark City is completely legal and above board."
Dizon filed his resignation from the BCDA in 2021.
It was during this time that Dizon took on a more public-facing role as the Deputy Chief Implementer of the National Task Force Against COVID-19, serving as the "testing czar" of the country. He was behind the conversion of major facilities into mega quarantine centers for COVID-19 patients. Later, President Duterte named him Presidential Adviser for COVID-19 Response in 2021.
“I spent a lot of my years in government in the legislative branch. So my exposure to politics has been very vast... At the same time, I have experience in the academe [and] the private sector. This allows me to straddle both worlds,” Dizon once said.
There’s no doubt Dizon has the credentials for his new role, and his years of experience surely prepared him—but dealing with our current transportation situation will most likely pose a whole different challenge for the guy they once called "wizard of Clark." To that we say, Good luck!
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