The administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is actively pursuing the rehabilitation of PNR through various investments and projects designed to revive Philippine rail transport. However, the situation is still hampered by numerous problems.
NORTHRAIL PROJECT:
Imagine uprooting 40,000 families — twice the entire population of the municipality of San Juan, Metro Manila — and relocating them elsewhere.
By any stretch of the imagination, this would be a logistical andsociological nightmare. The financial cost alone would also bestaggering. This is exactly what is happening in the government program to relocate those who will be displaced by the North Rail Project. The Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) estimates that the government needs to shell out at least P6.6 billion in resettlement costs, but it is not clear where this money is going to come from.
The Senate began last week hearings on the controversial North Rail project, which envisions the rehabilitation of the north line of the old Philippine National Railways (PNR). So far the hearings have focused on the allegedly onerous and illegal provisions of the North Rail contract, inked by the government with a Chinese company.
Little attention has been given to the fact that rebuilding and extending the 80-kilometer railway, a project intended to spur economic growth in Central and Northern Luzon, also means evicting more than 200,000 poor people who live alongside the railroad tracks. This would make it the biggest — and costliest — resettlement project ever undertaken by the Philippine government.
Apart from financing difficulties, the North Rail relocation program is beset by the same problems that have hounded government relocation projects elsewhere: corruption, inefficiency, the lack of a comprehensive relocation program, and a general disregard for the views and the needs of the poor people who are facing eviction.
Read on here.
Source: Philippine Center For Investigative Journalism.
NORTHRAIL: AFTER P11 BILLION, WHERE'S THE RAILROAD?
MANILA, JULY 6, 2008 (STAR) By Jess Diaz - After the government spent nearly P11 billion for the North Luzon railway, the next question is: Where is the railroad?
“The government has advanced $150 million to the Chinese contractor. At the present exchange rate, that is more than P6.8 billion. The clearing of squatters along the railroad has cost taxpayers at least P4 billion. In all, expenses have reached a staggering P10.8 billion,” Harry Roque told reporters.
Roque said all that has been accomplished was the clearing of squatters by a task force led by Vice President Noli de Castro, who chairs the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council.
He said the Chinese firm contracted to do the project, China National Machinery and Equipment Group (CNMEG), “has nothing to show for the $150 million advanced to it.”
“Company officials are claiming that the bulk of the money has been paid to corrupt Philippine officials in the form of bribes,” he said.
Source: http://my_sarisari_store.typepad.com/my_sarisari_store/2008/11/index.html
2 comments:
An interesting article on a very sad bit of Philippine railway history.
After this debarcle, it is not hard to see why they would not even wish to entertain a similar modernisation of the south line.
The quality of the Linkage project work, especially in the areas around Laon Laan to Sta Mesa, is an absolute disgrace. Surely not to the standard the Koreans would expect in their own country.
There is often screaming in government circles about Northrail costing more, per kilometre, than this work on the south. It is obvious, even to the biggest of idiots, that this would be the case just by looking at the differences in the work.
Regards
Brad
Philippine Railway Historical Society
http://philippine-railways.blogspot.com
I should also mention that all the passenger carriages shown in the photos have been scrapped now.
PNR has scrapped the vast majority of old coaches in anticipation of new arrivals from either Taiwan, Japan or Italy, depending on which PNR employee you wish to believe :-)
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