We can do this Transport Secretary Arthur Tugade tries his hand on an earth-drilling machine during the groundbreaking of the North-South Commuter Railway which is expected to revolutionize travel from Manila to suburbs. ROMAN PROSPERO">We can do this Transport Secretary Arthur Tugade tries his hand on an earth-drilling machine during the groundbreaking of the North-South Commuter Railway which is expected to revolutionize travel from Manila to suburbs. ROMAN PROSPERO

The Duterte administration’s flagship “Build, Build, Build” projects made a huge headway as the Department of Transportation (DoTr) led the groundbreaking for the first phase of the Philippine National Railways (PNR) system using a fast train capable of traveling at 160 kilometers per hour that will link Metro Manila to Clark Field in Pampanga.

The 37.6-kilometer elevated mass railway making up the first phase of the North-South Commuter

Railway (NSCR) project will cost a total of P149 billion, P93 billion of which was funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The NSCR’s full stretch of 147 kilometers will cost P777.55 billion when completed, according to DoTr officials when they visited the regular forum “Straight Talk with Daily Tribune” last week.

The DoTr has selected Sumitomo-Mitsui Construction Co. Ltd. to build the rail line. It will have 36 stations from Clark International Airport to Calamba, Laguna.

The railway project will connect PNR Clark Phase 1 (Tutuban-Malolos), PNR Clark Phase 2 (Malolos-Clark) and the PNR Calamba Project which will run from Manila to Calamba.

The NSCR will also link with existing railway lines LRT-1, LRT-2, MRT-3 and the Metro Manila Subway.

Better days for commuters Time capsule is lowered during the ground-breaking ceremony of the Philippine National Railways rapid transit project. ROMAN PROSPERO The DoTr estimates the railway system will serve around 340,000 daily passengers once it starts partial operations in 2022 and daily ridership of 500,000 passengers once it becomes fully operational by 2023.

Transport Secretary Arthur Tugade led the simple ground-breaking rites along with DoTr Undersecretary Timothy John Batan, PNR general manager Junn Magno, Japanese Ambassador Koji Haneda and JICA country representative Yoshio Wada.

The PNR system — which will run from Tutuban station in Manila to Malolos City in Bulacan for its first phase — will have a total 10 stations, namely, Tutuban, Solis, Caloocan, Valenzuela, Meycauayan, Marilao, Bocaue, Balagtas, Guiguinto and Malolos.

In his speech, Tugade said the ambitious project is expected to reduce travel time between Manila and Bulacan from over one hour and 30 minutes to 35 minutes once the railway is fully operational.

Also last week, the DoTr kicked off civil works for the Unified Grand Central Station or the common station, which will connect the Light Rail Transit Line 1 (LRT-1), Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT-3), Metro Rail Transit Line 7 (MRT-7) and the Metro Manila Subway.

The PNR project is expected to serve approximately 300,000 passengers daily. Target completion will be in 2021 and full operation should commence by 2022.

The DoTr said in a project briefer that it has been implementing the proper resettlement program for some 300 informal settler families along the proposed route of the railway.

The DoTr had entered into and approved a memorandum of agreement for Caloocan and Manila, Valenzuela and Guiguinto for Bulacan areas with the PNR, National Housing Authority, Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council and local government units for the relocation plan.

The PNR Tutuban-Malolos line will also be seamlessly integrated with the PNR Malolos-Clark project and the PNR South Commuter, Manila to Calamba, Laguna Project to form an integrated system that will serve commuters traveling to, from and within the National Capital Region (NCR), Region III and Region IV-A.

In the same event, Tugade stressed that the country does not necessarily need to source skilled workers from abroad to keep its “Build, Build, Build” program running on schedule, saying Filipinos can upgrade skills through the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).

“We have TESDA to train workers. They have a training program,” Tugade said on the President’s assessment of the situation that would mean hiring skilled workers from other countries.

The Duterte administration, which came to power in 2016, aims to pour more than P8.2 trillion in its flagship infrastructure program until 2022 — building ports, airports, roads, railways, energy facilities, irrigation systems and flood control facilities projects.

In December 2018, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III allayed concerns that Filipinos may be losing out on job opportunities due to the influx of Chinese workers, saying there was “no rampant” case of Filipino jobs ending in the hands of foreigners.

Under labor rules, the government can only issue an alien employment permit if a foreign national is going to do a job or service that cannot be performed by a Filipino.