Dizon tells DLSU students: Don’t be like Brice, Henry
Secretary Vince Dizon of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) on Thursday reminded students and graduates of his alma mater, De La Salle University (DLSU), not to follow in the footsteps of Henry Alcantara and Brice Hernandez, two of the DPWH engineers who were dismissed after being linked to massive corruption involving flood control projects.
Dizon made the call during the first DPWH “job fair” held at the university, which he considered as a way for the agency to attract young, reform-minded personnel.
Going in the ways of Alcantara and Hernandez will only land one in jail, he said.
‘Sorry, dean’
But when told by the audience that Hernandez actually graduated from DLSU, Dizon gasped and immediately apologized to the dean of the college of engineering, who was present at the program.
“Brice is from La Salle!? Oh my God. Sorry, dean, I’m very sorry,” he said. “I didn’t know Brice was from La Salle. Terrible.”
Hernandez, a former assistant district engineer of the DPWH-Bulacan First Engineering District, emerged as a key figure in last year’s congressional investigation of public works anomalies. The Commission on Audit also named him in its fraud audit reports on several projects that were traced to his office.
At one point, Hernandez admitted owning several luxury cars and was questioned how he could have possibly afforded them on a P70,000 monthly salary.
He later turned over his luxury cars to the Independent Commission for Infrastructure “as a sign of good faith and his willingness to further cooperate with the Commission.”
Now detained at Quezon City Jail, Hernandez recently pleaded not guilty to the graft charges filed against him at the Sandiganbayan in connection with a P92.8-million flood control project in Bulacan.
Enthusiasm for reforms
At the job fair, Dizon said hiring fresh graduates would help the DPWH tap new talents and push internal reforms to curb corruption and improve its public image.
The fair mostly offered positions in engineering and accounting.
“It really says a lot about the social involvement of your generation that despite the bad things that happened this past year, in the past so many years where the DPWH is in the forefront of everything that is bad in government, you are still here,” Dizon said in a speech.
Asked to comment on the Philippines again dropping in the global rankings in the 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index, the secretary said President Marcos had ordered him to do the following:
“Keep making people accountable, jail those who deserve to be jailed, return stolen wealth, and continue implementing reforms.’’
“And this,” he said, referring to the recruitment drive. “Injecting new blood and a new breed of engineers and accountants into the DPWH is a huge part of it.”
