Dunkin’ Donuts: Secretary Dizon’s Recipe for Disaster (and Due Process Violations)”

The Sweet Taste of Scapegoating: Why Blaming Petty Thieves Won’t Fix the DPWH’s Rotten Dough

By Louis ‘Barok’ C Biraogo — September 1, 2026

ALRIGHT, fellow denizens of the bureaucratic swamp, Barok here. Pull up a chair because the circus has come to town, and its ringmaster is none other than the newly-minted tough guy of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Secretary Vince Dizon.

You’ve seen the headlines. You’ve heard the soundbites. While the metropolis was busy turning into a poorly-planned water park, Secretary Dizon emerged from the floodwaters with a divine revelation: the Great Flood of 2026 wasn’t the fault of decades of systemic incompetence, the ₱42 billion annual corruption drain, or the fact that the government builds pumping stations with the waterproofing of a cardboard box.

No, according to the Secretary, the culprit is a copper wire. And a manhole cover. And a few valves.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Stealing high-voltage cables from a pumping station is not a victimless crime. It’s stupid, it’s dangerous, and it deserves prosecution.

But Dizon’s theatrical rage—threatening to personally dunk thieves in the floodwaters before they even see a fiscal—isn’t law enforcement. It’s performance art designed to distract you from the fact that the State has spent billions on flood control and still can’t stop a guy with a pair of bolt cutters from shutting down Metro Manila.

Let’s cut through the murky water, shall we?

***“Stay Suspicious: The Only Thing Rising Faster Than Floodwater Is the Bullshit”***

The “Petty Thief” Fallacy vs. The Grand Larceny of Governance

Secretary Dizon wants us to believe that if we just arrest the scrap metal dealers and patrol the scrapyards of Tondo, the floodwaters will recede. This is the analytical equivalent of treating a bullet wound with a band-aid while ignoring the guy holding the smoking gun.

Dizon’s predecessor, Manuel Bonoan, didn’t resign because of petty theft. He resigned under the “principle of command responsibility” because the entire flood control apparatus has been a high-stakes kleptocracy.

We’re talking about ghost projects, substandard materials, and the much-vaunted Sunog Apog pumping station—a ₱774-million white elephant that, according to President Marcos himself, “never properly operated for six years.” Six years!

The station was a disaster of design and maintenance before the copper thieves ever showed up. The government’s own record says the pumps failed due to garbage and technical defects.

So, when Dizon blames the current paralysis on theft, he is conveniently ignoring that he is the chief custodian of an agency that took three-quarters of a billion pesos and delivered a machine that only works if no one steals the extension cord.

The Geography of Rage

And what of the manhole covers along Roxas Boulevard? Stolen, allegedly, causing accidents. This is indeed a hazard.

But let’s ask the uncomfortable question Kweba readers demand: Why are iron manhole covers just sitting there, loose, in the middle of a national capital, ripe for the picking?

Dizon’s fury is directed at the “citizens” who stole them for “a few pesos at a junk shop.” But this misses the social physics at play.

If you build a city where poverty is so crushing that a man is willing to risk his life dismantling a flooded road for scrap metal, the problem isn’t just his moral failing; it’s the State’s failure to provide a baseline of economic security. It is much easier to yell “dunk them!” than it is to ask, “Why is the scrap trade more lucrative and accessible than legal employment for these people?”

The Constitutional Drowning

Let’s address the elephant in the room, or rather, the Secretary in the floodwater.

Dizon stated he wanted to “dunk” the thieves into the water before throwing them in jail. As a legal analyst—and a connoisseur of political buffoonery—I must point out that this is a textbook violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of Article III of the Constitution.

We have a presumption of innocence. We have a prohibition on cruel, degrading, or inhuman punishment.

When a Cabinet Secretary says this, he isn’t just venting. He is signaling to the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Coast Guard that “Duterte-style” justice is back on the menu. It’s a dog whistle for vigilante action. It authorizes the state apparatus to treat due process as a bureaucratic nuisance that gets in the way of a good photo op.

It is, frankly, the rhetoric of a man who knows he is sitting on a powder keg of incompetence and is desperate to deflect the blast.

Mission Creep and the Coast Guard

Speaking of the Coast Guard: what in the name of maritime law are they doing guarding landlocked pumping stations in Tondo?

Republic Act (RA) 9993 or the Philippine Coast Guard Law gives the Coast Guard authority over maritime safety and security. Deploying them to guard a ditch in Manila is legally questionable and institutionally bizarre.

It suggests that either the PNP is so compromised or overstretched that we need sailors to guard our drains, or—more likely—this is a publicity stunt. It looks tough. It looks like a “whole-of-government approach.”

In reality, it’s an admission that the DPWH cannot secure its own facilities and is so devoid of trust in civilian police that it needs the military to stop teenagers from unscrewing bolts.

The Verdict

Secretary Dizon is playing a game of misdirection.

He is betting that the Filipino public’s anger will be sufficiently distracted by the image of a petty thief in handcuffs that they won’t look at the audit reports showing billions vanishing into thin air. He is counting on the public’s fatigue with legal nuance to allow him to bypass the Constitution in the name of “protecting public safety.”

But here at the Kweba, we see the truth.

The theft of the cables is a proximate cause of the flooding.
The ultimate cause is a corrupt, inefficient system that Dizon has failed to fix.

If Dizon really wants to find the thieves, he doesn’t need to raid a junk shop in Tondo. He needs to look at the people who signed off on the substandard pumps, the contractors who poured substandard concrete, and the architects who designed a drainage system that loses to a thunderstorm.

The manhole covers weren’t the only things missing on Roxas Boulevard. Accountability has been missing for years.

So, go ahead, Mr. Secretary. Dunk the petty thieves if it makes you feel powerful. But until you fix the systemic rot in your own department, the only people drowning are the taxpayers—and the water is coming for your job next.

This is Barok, logging off. Stay dry, and stay suspicious.

Key Citations

A. News Articles

Ronda, Rainier Allan. “Pumping Stations Fail as Flood Infrastructure Pilfered.” The Philippine Star, 31 Aug. 2026, http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2026/08/31/2552999/pumping-stations-fail-flood-infrastructure-pilfered.
Geducos, Argyll Cyrus. “Marcos: Bonoan Resigned under ‘Command Responsibility’.” Manila Bulletin, 1 Sept. 2025, mb.com.ph/2025/09/01/marcos-bonoan-resigned-under-command-responsibility.
Mangaluz, Jean. “Marcos: Bonoan Quit DPWH over ‘Command Responsibility’.” Philstar.com, 1 Sept. 2025, http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2025/09/01/2469717/marcos-bonoan-quit-dpwh-over-command-responsibility.
“Marcos Inspects Rehabilitated Sunog Apog Pumping Station after 6 Years of Non-Operation.” Manila Bulletin, 25 May 2026, mb.com.ph/2026/05/25/marcos-inspects-rehabilitated-sunog-apog-pumping-station-after-6-years-of-non-operation.
“Marcos: Sunog Apog Pumping Station in Tondo Now Working.” Inquirer.net, 26 May 2026, newsinfo.inquirer.net/2233973/marcos-sunog-apog-pumping-station-in-tondo-now-working.
“Marcos Promised a Crackdown on Flood Control Corruption. What Happened a Year Later?” Rappler, 26 July 2026, http://www.rappler.com/philippines/marcos-promise-crackdown-flood-control-corruption-year-later/.

B. Reports & Studies

“Accountability Washed Away in Philippine Flood Control Corruption.” East Asia Forum, 2 Dec. 2025, eastasiaforum.org/2025/12/02/accountability-washed-away-in-philippine-flood-control-corruption/.

C. Official Documents & Laws

The 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines, art. III. Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines, http://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/constitutions/the-1987-constitution-of-the-republic-of-the-philippines/the-1987-constitution-of-the-republic-of-the-philippines-article-iii/.
Republic Act No. 9993. Supreme Court E-Library, 12 Feb. 2010, elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocs/2/17034.
“PBBM Accepts Resignation of Bonoan, Appoints Vince Dizon as DPWH Secretary to Lead Anti-Corruption Drive.” Presidential Communications Office, 31 Aug. 2025, pco.gov.ph/news_releases/pbbm-accepts-resignation-of-bonoan-appoints-vince-dizon-as-dpwh-secretary-to-lead-anti-corruption-drive/.