Without putting up a fight, tens of thousands of squatters have agreed to make way for the North-South Rail Project that will start work next year.
This has been made possible by an agreement between the Department of Transportation and housing agencies on the relocation of around 100,000 informal settler families.
Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade and officials of the Philippine National Railways signed the Memorandum of Agreement Friday with Presidential Commission on Urban Poor chairperson, James Mark Terry Ridon; National Housing Authority general manager Marcelino Escalada Jr.; Social Housing Finance Corp. president Arnolfo Ricardo Cabling; and Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council chairman Eduardo del Rosario.
The MOA will enable the agencies to provide ISFs with affordable housing assistance in order for them to be relocate in favor of the railway project.
“We really need to relocate the informal settlers living near the railways for their safety,” PNR chairman Roberto Lastimoso said.
“This MOA signing is proof that the government agencies are united in fulfilling the promise of the administration,” Tugade said.
SHFC’s Cabling said, “We assure you that the houses that we will provide for the affected ISFs are livable, affordable, and inclusive.”
NSRP, also known as the PNR South Long Haul, is a 653-kilometer railway project that will run from Manila to Batangas, Laguna, Bicol and Sorsogon.
The rail line is expected to reduce travel time from Manila to Laguna from two and a half hours to 45 minutes, while travel time from Manila to the Bicol region will improve from 12 hours to 6 hours.
Construction of the PNR South Long Haul is set to start in 2018 and the railway is expected to be operational by the second quarter of 2022.
The railroad’s Commuter Line segment will start from Solis-Hermosa in Manila to Los Baños, Laguna.
The Long Haul segment will start from Los Baños and will run through Batangas, Quezon, and the Bicol provinces of Camarines Sur and Albay to Sorsogon.