New DOTr chief seeks revamp, finds Edsa bus lane ‘efficient’
Newly appointed Transportation Secretary Vivencio Dizon on Tuesday confirmed asking all undersecretaries and senior officials of his agency to tender their courtesy resignations and give him “a free hand” to perform his mandate.
“In the exigency of service, and in order to give the undersigned a free hand to perform that mandate given to him by the President, all incumbent undersecretaries, assistant secretaries and directors of this department are directed to tender their unqualified courtesy resignations, not later than 26 February 2025, subject to pertinent civil service laws, rules and regulations,” Dizon said in a memorandum issued on Monday. (See Biz Buzz in Business, Page A12.)
But Dizon said that until he takes action on these resignations, the officials concerned “shall continue to report for work and perform their usual duties and responsibilities, subject to any modification that the undersigned may deem proper to adopt in the meantime.”
In a press briefing on Tuesday, Dizon said his request for courtesy resignations covered only the Department of Transportation’s (DOTr) central office and not its attached agencies and government-owned and -controlled corporations.
“It’s a standard memo in government when there is a change in leadership where we ask for courtesy resignations. It’s just a simple gesture of goodwill and good faith to the newly appointed leadership which will allow [it] to find the best personnel to do the jobs that need to be done,” Dizon said.
8 usecs, 11 asecs
According to the DOTr website, there are, in the agency’s central office, eight undersecretaries, 11 assistant secretaries and about a dozen directors of various ranks, some of them still officers in charge.
“It does not mean that I will accept those courtesy resignations in toto—no, it just means that we are now given the free hand to, maybe, move people around, [and] if possible, look at the talents that we have already in the DOTr and also outside talents that may be able to help us because, you know, the work of the DOTr is difficult,” Dizon said.
“We really need to find the best talent and utilize the best talent both in-house and also from outside of the agency in order to deliver on what the President wants us to deliver, which is to fast-track all these ongoing projects and really find immediate, medium- and long-term ways to alleviate the plight of our commuters,” he added.
Firsthand experience
After assuming office on Monday, Dizon used the Edsa Bus Carousel service as he wanted to experience firsthand the daily plight of commuters using the busway system and see the upgrades that the DOTr would implement.
The Edsa Bus Carousel is bus rapid transit system operated by the DOTr on Edsa, the country’s busiest thoroughfare. The busway pertains to the dedicated right-of-way, which is the innermost lane where accredited buses travel, separated from normal road traffic by concrete barriers and steel bollards.
Dizon said he realized the “genius” of the busway, describing it as “efficient.” He said it only needed to improve “customer experience,” especially when passengers from the busway and the Metro Rail Transit 3 mix during rush hours.
Dizon said that after traveling the Ortigas-Monumento segment of the busway, he observed the nonexistent clear way finders at busway and MRT 3 stations, faulty timers at bus stops, inconvenient railing stops and broken elevators. He said buses sometimes stop right beside road barriers, forcing passengers to walk sideways to reach the station gates.
A stricter dispatch system, he said, must be implemented at the Parañaque Integrated Terminal Exchange and Monumento station to ensure buses leave as scheduled, avoid clogging at bus stops, and make travel time more predictable.
Dizon said that to avoid busway passengers from mixing up with MRT 3 passengers, the DOTr would have to build separate busway concourses.
“The ultimate fix, which would take anywhere between 10 and 12 months or 14 months, is we have to build separate concourses [for the Edsa busway],” he said, adding that the SM Group has already donated two busway concourses.
More stations
He said the DOTr would replicate the busway stations donated by the SM Group for other stations on Edsa. Project bidding is set for May with the construction of the concourses expected to start in the second half of this year.
Dizon added that the operations and maintenance of the Edsa busway would be up for privatization as part of the long-term plans for the busway system. Its feasibility study, he said, is expected to be completed in a few months and may be awarded by the end of 2026.
Edsa busway ridership topped 63,022,953 in 2024, while a total of 5,503,388 commuters patronized the bus system in January 2025, according to DOTr data.
