Cleanse.

A Nation Begins to Clean House: The Courage of Secretary Vince Dizon

By Dr. Tony Leachon

In a time of deep public cynicism, where corruption has seeped into every corner of governance, the swift action of Secretary Vince Dizon offers a rare glimpse of what leadership can—and must—look like.

The preventive suspension of 16 DPWH personnel in Bulacan, following criminal complaints over ghost and substandard flood control projects, is not just a disciplinary measure. It is a signal. A purge. A beginning.

Secretary Dizon’s directive for full cooperation with the Independent Commission for Infrastructure is a bold move toward transparency and institutional accountability. It breaks the pattern of silence and complicity that has long protected the powerful and punished the poor.

This is what agile leadership looks like:

• Clean up the rot.

• Prosecute the guilty.

• Protect the public.

But this must not stop at district engineers.

We must follow the trail—upward.

To the contractors.

To the regional directors.

To the budget architects.

To the bicameral committee.

To the economic managers.

To the President who signed the 2025 GAA despite civil society’s resistance.

No one is immaculately clean.

But someone must be brave enough to start the cleansing.

Secretary Dizon has taken the first step.

Now let the rest of government follow.

Let this be more than a gesture.

Let it be a reckoning.

Accountability is not vengeance.

It is justice.

And justice is the only path to healing a nation betrayed.

Tony Leachon