Some residents affected by the ongoing North-South Commuter Railway project face an uncertain future following their disqualification from the government’s resettlement action plan for those who will be displaced from their homes.
Several trains of the Philippine National Railways remain idle at Tutuban Station in Manila after operations were suspended for five years beginning March 28, 2024 to pave the way for the North-South Commuter Railway project. Photo by Mervin Manaois
After nearly half a century, 70-year-old Nora Castro will be forced to leave her long-time home in Old Antipolo Street in Manila to make way for the construction of one of the stations of the North-South Commuter Railway (NSCR) project.
Castro, who lives with her children and grandchildren, is one of the residents of Barangay 349 whose future remains uncertain.
While residents affected by the project are entitled to relocation, her chances of getting approved for government support are dim after it was discovered that she was a beneficiary of not just one, but two government housing programs – something she and her family dispute.
“Paano ako nagkaroon ng bahay, hindi naman ako umaalis dito. Kilala ko ‘yung mga tao [sa Pampanga], pero hindi ako nagkaroon ng bahay diyan,” she said in an interview.
Jane Quiap, Castro’s daughter-in-law, said her mother-in-law was discovered to be a beneficiary of a government housing project in Bulacan.
“Pero wala naman talaga… So ang ginawa ng chairman namin, kinausap ‘yung mga taga-DOTr (Department of Transportation). Ang sabi, gumawa na lang daw ng letter tapos i-sign na katunayan na wala talagang natanggap,” said Quiap, who is married to the barangay secretary.
But after submitting the certification that she was not a beneficiary of the said housing project in Bulacan, they found out that Castro supposedly received another housing unit in Pampanga.
“’Yung details, talagang kuhang-kuha. Pati asawa, pati pamilya at mga anak niya. Kaya nagtataka siya kung bakit may ganun siyang isyu na may natanggap siyang bahay sa Pampanga,” said Quiap.
“Kaya ang ginawa ng DOTr, hinold lang muna si nanay. Naka-hold siya parang i-imbestigahan ba kung totoo o hindi,” she added.
In the adjacent Barangay 348, sari-sari store and fruit shake stand owner Veronica Buen is also facing the same problem.
While she and her family only moved to their present home in 2017, Buen said she had lived near the train tracks of PNR’s Blumentritt station since 1985.
Now living with her second husband Arturo Rodriguez and her two grandchildren, she said they get by each day with the income from her store and earnings from her husband’s jeepney trips.
Like Castro, Buen and her family are also in danger of not getting government support for families affected by the NSCR project.
Her second husband was disqualified from the list of beneficiaries after it was discovered that Buen already had a house registered under her deceased husband’s name.
Buen confirmed that her first husband already received government housing, but argued that she did not benefit from it as the house was sold without her knowledge.
“Pero disqualified, sinabi nila nang harapan… ‘disqualified nga kayo kasi meron na kayo ng pabahay.’ Pero sinabi ko sa kanila, ‘Ma’am, may pabahay po ‘yung asawa ko. Iba naman po ‘yung apelyido ng asawa ko ngayon sa asawa kong namatay.’ Wala eh, kinukumpara raw nila sa pangalan ko,” she narrated.
Aside from losing their homes without an assurance of a relocation site, the families of Castro and Buen are also fearing loss of their livelihood as they will be uprooted from the community they lived in for decades for a project expected to benefit a lot of Filipinos.
‘Inclusive growth’
The NSCR project is a product of the decades-long plan to connect Metro Manila with provinces in Luzon through a commuter rail system.
The current iteration of the project began during the second Aquino administration , which signed a loan agreement with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for the first phase of the project running from Malolos, Bulacan to Tutuban in Manila.
The Duterte administration continued the project and signed several loan agreements with JICA and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Construction began in 2020, with additional contracts awarded during the current Marcos administration.
The NSCR project, implemented jointly by the DOTr and the Philippine National Railway (PNR), has a total project cost of P873.62 billion. It includes the original Malolos-Clark Railway Project and the South Commuter Railway Project and spans 147 kilometers of railway infrastructure.
It will have a total of 35 stations and will connect the greater Metro Manila area to Clark, Pampanga in the north and Calamba, Laguna in the south.
In Metro Manila, the new NSCR system is expected to replace the “street level, single track and diesel locomotive set-up” of the old PNR commuter line with an “an elevated, double-track and electrified train system.”
PNR operations were suspended for five years starting March 2024 to pave the way for the project.
Implementation is divided into three phases: the Tutuban-Malolos line, the Malolos-Clark line, and the South Commuter Railway that will traverse from Solis in Manila to Calamba, Laguna.
According to its proponents, the project aims to “promote inclusive growth and improve the transport and logistics services to currently underserved areas in the country” and “ease the traffic congestion on the national and local roads while accelerating economic growth and expansion along the project's coverage.”
Once fully operational, the NSCR system is expected to accommodate 800,000 daily passengers and halve travel time between Clark and Calamba from four hours to just two hours.
Originally targeted to be finished in 2024, delays pushed its completion date to 2029 and again to 2031. Officials initially announced that partial operations will begin in the third quarter of 2026. The DOTr later said that partial operations of the Clark to Valenzuela will begin in 2027, then moved it again to the first quarter of 2028.
In an interview last year, PNR chairman Michael Macapagal recognized challenges in project implementation, including right-of-way issues. He underscored the importance of striking a “delicate balance” to resolve the issue.
“On one side, you have to be persuasive. On the other naman, you have to show empathy to the people by educating them, informing them of the need to do what you’re doing. You go down to the ground at ipaliwanag nang maayos,” he explained.
Despite the delays, he expressed confidence that they would be able to meet the project timeline.
“Ang pinakamatagal would be to finish the Metro Manila-South. Pero ‘yung Northern Phase 1, matatapos na po ‘yan in two years’ time,” Macapagal added.
Resettlement plan
Prior to the commencement of the project, the government came up with a resettlement action plan (RAP) to provide compensation, relocation assistance and livelihood restoration to affected households.
Castro and Buen are among the residents of eight barangays covered by the Solis-Blumentritt section of the project.
Based on the project data sheet, the 1.9-kilometer Blumentritt extension section is officially part of the Malolos-Clark Railway segment of the NSCR project. It will connect Solis and Blumentritt stations, with the latter becoming a transfer station as it will be constructed next to a station of the Light Rail Transit Line 1.
Two RAPs were released for the Solis-Blumentritt section of the project, one for landowners and non-resident business owners and another for non-landowners.
The project – which was awarded to the joint venture of two Indonesian firms in February 2023 for over P11 billion – was projected to affect at least 70 landowner households and 447 non-landowner households.
They were among the thousands expected to be affected by the project.
A 2020 RAP released by the ADB showed that the South Commuter Railway Project – which starts east of Blumentritt station in Manila to Calamba station in Laguna – is projected to affect 11,114 households comprised of 41,146 individuals.
Among the cities and municipalities that will be traversed by this section of the railway, Manila had the highest number of projected affected households at 3,868.
Based on the plan, affected households (AHs) that were deemed eligible will be provided with relocation assistance. They will have two options: assisted resettlement and self-relocation options.
“The self-relocation is provided to AHs who wish to choose to relocate to their hometown, to a relative with residence close to their current sources of living, to rent somewhere near their current location, or to relocate in a permanent dwelling of their choice,” the document read.
“The assisted resettlement option entails the provision of permanent housing through the Community Mortgage Program of the Social Housing Finance Corporation (SHFC), a component of which is the High-Density Housing program which focuses on housing of informal settler families living in the National Capital Region,” it added.
SHFC has so far identified more 13,000 affected households affected by the NSCR project in Metro Manila and Laguna. More than 3,300 are in Manila.
In an interview, engineer Renalyn Nakpil of SHFC’s resettlement services group said they have already identified relocation sites for the identified families.
While some will be relocated within or near where they currently live, those in Manila will be offered relocation to Naic, Cavite.
“Before po tayo pumunta ng off-city, naghanap muna po talaga si SFHC ng mga areas na in-city lang po para maiwasan din talaga ‘yung problema ng mga livelihood concern,” she said.
However, with the apparent congestion in urban areas, SHFC was left with the decision to relocate Manila residents to Naic.
“Lahat po iyan, dumaan po sa masusing pag-aaral. Naghanap po talaga ng in-city. However, sa Manila, Makati at Taguig ay medyo crowded areas na po. And then kung nakikita niyo din po sa news … talagang limited na po ‘yung lang area natin for housing sa NCR,” she added.
Pulling back the curtains of promise
A 2017 case study conducted by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) evaluated the benefits and costs of resettlement projects in the Philippines.
It noted that off-city relocation, which are “often hastily undertaken, and are located in marginalized areas,” lead to problems such as decreased family incomes, deficiencies in basic services, and lower participation of children in schooling.
The study noted that off-city projects are also potentially more costly to the government than in-city projects since “social and physical infrastructures tend to rise exponentially the greater the distance to the relocation site from the original site, or from the city proper.”
Such is the case of Beatriz Bautista, a resident who was displaced from her house in Manila when the Skyway construction began in 2007.
She initially agreed to relocate to Trece Martires in Cavite, but decided to return to Manila in 2013 after her mother died.
“Maganda po sana ‘yung lugar kaya lang walang buhay,” she said.
Bautista explained they could not bear the living conditions in their relocation site because it was far from a hospital and there was no reliable source of income to sustain them.
“Paano ako uuwi don? Asan ‘yung pagkain ko? Asan ‘yung gagastusin ko?” she said. “Ano, mamamatay na lang ako doon? Ganon lang? Hindi naman puwede iyon. Nagugutom ako, gusto kong kumain.”
However, returning to her old neighborhood was not easy as her house had already been demolished when her family left for Cavite.
Now, without a home in the city, Bautista only sleeps on benches near Barangay 348’s barangay hall and relies on food given by her former neighbors and relatives in the area.
Like Buen and Castro, she is also not qualified for relocation assistance because of the previous housing unit that she received.
According to the PIDS study, while in-city housing requires higher investment, it is much more preferable as it yields better socioeconomic benefits, it added.
In an interview, Dr. Marife Ballesteros, the author of the study, said that relocated families should be treated fairer by improving their housing conditions and ensuring job security.
“It takes time, but the most successful has been the one in San Juan del Monte, [which utilized] participatory housing approach and incremental housing approach. NHA (National Housing Authority) provided the site, gave them a piece of lot allowing them to improve the house, and the community thrived with businesses open. They’ve been integrated into society,” she added.
Moving forward, Ballesteros said implementation of relocation projects should further be improved by providing subsidy programs for the affected families and ensuring better cooperation within concerned agencies and the community.
The cost of progress
In the areas directly impacted by the NSCR project, some residents continue to seek clarity and fair treatment.
Buen, whose family was disqualified from relocation assistance because of the previous housing unit received by her late husband, fears not only for their livelihood, but also her grandson’s future.
Meanwhile, Castro, who is still waiting for a decision on her appeal, is worried for her family’s future as the impending displacement could mean separation from her children and grandchildren.
Even those who were qualified for relocation have concerns.
Marlin Teles, barangay secretary of Barangay 348 in Manila, said the proposed relocation site in Naic, Cavite will disrupt their livelihood.
She lamented inconsistencies, particularly in the area where they will be relocated, leaving her and her neighbors with unclear prospects.
During their first meeting, she said they were informed that the relocation site would be in Tanza, Cavite. They initially rejected it because of the promise that affected residents will be relocated in-city.
However, after many of them agreed to relocate, they were informed that it will now be in Naic.
“Kasi ang pinili nga namin Manila. [Sabi nila,] kung saan kayo umalis, doon din kayo titira – Manila din daw. Noong inenganyo na nga kami ng Cavite, pumayag na kami. Tapos iba na naman,” Teles said.
“Dati maganda ‘yung mga relocation, ‘yung housing. Up and down na housing, 40 square meters. Tapos nagbago ang presidente natin, nagbago na rin … ‘yung relocation. Naging condominium o tenement tapos lumiit pa ‘yung space. Dati 40 square-meter na housing, ngayon … 27 na lang,” she added.
Based on the project’s resettlement action plan, the DOTr will implement a Livelihood Improvement and Restoration Program in partnership with the city government and other agencies.
“The approach involves immediate restoration of livelihood, short- to mid-term improvement of livelihood, and long-term improvement of livelihood…Microbusiness owners will be assisted in re-establishing their business, as well as in securing soft loans, government-issued identifications and permits,” read the document.
“Financial management training, job referrals, and priority job placements in project works will be provided to the vulnerable [affected persons] and employees losing employment from affected micro-businesses. Household members will also be given vocational/enterprise trainings to diversify household income sources. For the long-term assistance, [those] who will be transferred to relocation sites will be given support in the final restoration of their affected enterprises or income sources,” it added.
According to Teles, they also received complaints from residents who encountered problems in the submission of the required documents for relocation.
“Minsan nga ang nangyayari, nakikipag-debate na kami … Minsan ang barangay ang nasisisi kapag nawala ‘yung mga documents nila,” she said, noting that beneficiaries have to deal with several agencies, including the DOTr, PNR, SHFC and the city government.
Being approved for relocation is not a guarantee that they will get a housing unit, said the barangay secretary.
When an individual is approved for relocation, authorities will check their capacity to pay for the housing unit that will be offered to them. If a resident doesn’t have the capacity to pay, they will have to get the assistance for self-relocation instead.
According to SHFC, a resident will be disqualified for relocation if they already have an existing housing record from the NHA.
“After sa validation stage, nag-u-undergo naman sila ng NHA pre-qualification. So ‘yung NHA, meron kasi silang double availment monitoring system kung saan nalalaman nila kung sino ang nabigyan ng NHA housing ng early 2000s, mid-2000s,” said SHFC social preparations officer Kyle Orig.
She said the processes for endorsement and qualification for endorsement are handled by different agencies. The DOTr, which handles the endorsement, produces a master list that will be sent to SHFC for on-ground verification.
“Sa validation stage, ang criteria natin doon ay presently residing as of the time of validation, so nakita mo siya doon sa area. Nakapagpakita siya ng valid ID, kasi ginagamit din natin iyong identification nila para sa iba pang mga processes ng SHFC leading into their qualification,” Orig explained.
Buen, who is still hopeful that her family will qualify for relocation, said she is willing to continue following the process and submit the required documents, even if just for relocation assistance.
“Sabi lang namin kapag may nag-iikot ... disqualified na kami, tanggap namin. Sana bigyan kami ng pabor para umalis dito, na bigyan kami ng pang-upa. Kasi saan kami hahanap agad ng bahay, ng pang-upa ‘di ba? Buti pag bibigyan kami ng bahay kaagad, eh wala naman kaming pang-upa niyan,” Buen said.
But for others like Castro, who had lived in the area for decades, she prefers getting an assurance that they will not be displaced and relocated to somewhere without a source of living.
“Ang hinihiling namin, sana ‘wag na kaming idamay,” she said.
