Self-styled anti-corruption crusader Batangas 1st district Rep. Leandro Legarda Leviste has doubled down on his call for Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Vince Dizon to be transparent about the inner workings of the agency when it comes to systemic kickbacks.

Leviste, in a press conference and a subsequent statement Friday afternoon, Oct. 17, also said that he knew more about the DPWH than what he had already revealed to the public, and that he wanted Dizon--who was relatively new to his post--to make the necessary changes.

"Si Secretary Vince Dizon, I believe sincerely na nag-aattempt na i-reporma ang DPWH. Kung hindi po ako naniniwala sa kanyang liderato, ilalabas ko pa ang mas marami ko pang alam tungkol sa central office ng DPWH ngayon," said the neophyte congressman.

(I believe that Secretary Vince Dizon is sincerely attempting to reform the DPWH. If I didn't believe in his leadership, then I would expose now the other things that I know about the central office of the DPWH.)

"Pero ayaw ko po siyang mapahiya. Ang gusto ko po, ibigay sa kanya ang oportunidad na siya ang gumawa ng mga repormang ito (But I don’t want to shame him. What I want is for him to get the opportunity to implement these reforms)," said Leviste, who has repeatedly called for DPWH project costs to be lowered by 25 percent in order to eliminate the possibility of kickbacks.

"Kasi ang objective ko po ay regardless of who gets the credit, mangyari po ang mga gusto nating reporma sa DPWH (Because my objective is for these reforms in the DPWH to take place, regardless of who gets the credit)," he added.

Citing "multiple sources", Leviste claimed in a press conference Thursday, Oct. 16 that appointees of Dizon--who took over as DPWH chief only last Sept. 2--were either contractos or connected to contractors.

The 32-year-old solon flagged this and asked Dizon to bare all. He also showed disappointment that Dizon had yet to heed his suggestion to lower project costs by a quarter.

On Friday, Leviste identified Undersecretary Arrey Perez--who was said to be close to Dizon--as someone with alleged links to contractors.

“Narinig ko na ipapahawak daw sa kanya ang procurement o bidding ng malalaking proyekto sa sentro ng DPWH. Ang focus ko ay sana repormahin natin ang sistema at huwag natin isipin na kung palitan lang natin ang mga tao na gagawa ng bidding ng mga proyekto, mawawala na ang korapsyon,” Leviste said.

(I heard that he will supposedly be given control over the procurement or bidding of major projects at the central office of the DPWH. My focus is that we should reform the system and not think that simply replacing the people who handle the bidding of projects will eliminate corruption.)

In a related development Friday, Dizon said that he had accepted Perez's resignation.

But Leviste claimed there were other DPWH officials who had connections to contractors. “Ang hinihiling ko ay sana sila mismo ang magboluntaryo ng impormasyon kung sino ang mga kontratista na nakausap nila mula sa simula ng kanilang termino, kung ito ba ay nasa loob o labas ng kanilang tanggapan, at i-disclose ang koneksyon nila sa mga kontratista."

(What I’m asking is that they themselves voluntarily disclose information about which contractors they’ve spoken to since the start of their term, whether these meetings happened inside or outside their office, and to disclose their connections with those contractors.)

The Batangueño stressed: “Ang solusyon ay hindi ang pagpapalit ng personalidad. Dahil kung hindi natin ayusin ang sistema, baka ilipat lang ang korapsyon mula sa district engineering office papunta sa central office ng DPWH."

(The solution is not changing personalities. Because if we don’t fix the system, corruption might just be transferred from the district engineering office to the central office of the DPWH.)

In both press conferences, Leviste expressed his hardline stance against corruption in the DPWH. But everything was fixable, he said.

"Ang hinihiling ko sana ay i-reporma natin ang polisiya ng DPWH tulad ng pagbaba ng presyo at pagdisclose ng impormasyon ng budget, at pag ginawa natin ito, kahit anuman ang lalabas na nakipagmeeting pala sila sa mga contractors sa labas ng DPWH ay makikita naman natin na walang intension na kumickback dahil ibinaba na ang presyo at naging transparent tayo sa alokasyon ng budget,” he noted.

(What I’m hoping for is that we reform DPWH policies, such as lowering project costs and disclosing budget information. And if we do this, even if it turns out they met with contractors outside the DPWH, we’ll see that there was no intention to receive kickbacks because the prices were lowered and we were transparent with budget allocation.)