An edited video of Public Works Secretary Vivencio “Vince” Dizon circulating online claims that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had instructed him to stop corruption, then focus on planning it. This is misleading.
The clip was taken from a video of Dizon’s appearance at the Senate last Oct. 27 where he was asked about the P255-billion cut in the DPWH flood control budget for 2026. He responded that the Palace’s recommendation was to temporarily stop funding for locally funded projects due to alleged anomalies and “plan carefully” a national mitigation program to “prevent future cases of corruption of such a scale.”
A Facebook page posted the video on Jan. 22 with a caption in a mix of Filipino and Cebuano:
“Utos ni Marcos Jr e hunong sa daw ang corruption og ika duha planuhon
(Marcos Jr’s order is to stop corruption, and second, to plan).”
The post included a clip of Vice President Sara Duterte supposedly reacting to Dizon’s statement during the Senate hearing. It also bore a text overlay below with the same meaning:
“sabi ng Pangulo stop muna ang corruption at ikalawa planuhin
(The president said, stop corruption first, and second, plan it).”
Other users shared similar clips on Facebook and YouTube, further alleging that Dizon had a “slip of the tongue” during the hearing.
The video was originally cut from the Senate livestream at the 1:57:34 – 1:57:46 mark:
“Ang sabi po ng pangulo, una, ihinto na muna natin ‘yung pagnanakaw… kasi mukhang ginamit lang ‘to para… sa maanomalyang rason. At ikalawa, planuhin na natin nang mabuti
(The president said, first, let us stop the stealing… because it seems like this was just used for… anomalous reasons. And second, let us plan carefully).”
Dizon was responding to Sen. Erwin Tulfo, who asked about the impact of reducing the flood control budget by P255 billion.
“Hahayaan na lang nating bumaha ang buong Pilipinas?” Tulfo asked. “Does this mean na itong flood control (projects) na tinanggal ng pangulo… [are] not really necessary
(Are we going to let the whole Philippines sink in flood? Does this mean that the flood control projects the president removed are not really necessary)?”
Dizon explained, “Ang sabi po ng pangulo sa akin… ‘teka, stop muna tayo’ (The president told me… ‘wait, let’s stop for now’).” Later, he added that the decision was made to “prevent future cases of corruption of such a scale.”
Clarifying what he meant by “planning,” Dizon noted that many projects in the past such as revetments were “not planned correctly” and sometimes caused more harm than good.
He also referred to the administration’s shift toward a science-based “national flood mitigation program” coordinated with experts from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the University of the Philippines’ Project NOAH, among others.
The DPWH saw massive cuts in the final version of the 2026 national budget, particularly in its capital outlay, in the midst of the flood control corruption scandal. Dizon said the government retained P15.7 billion allocation for foreign-assisted projects, which he noted have stricter oversight mechanisms.
As of writing, the misleading video published by Facebook page Sidetrip Ni Dong has received over 9,900 reactions; 844 comments; and 270,000 views.
VERA Files has flagged the same user for sharing a misleading video claiming that United States President Donald Trump will rescue former president Rodrigo Duterte from detention at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
