PNR Project and the Railway Community in Brgy. Del Remedio, San Pablo City

Abstract

Hundreds of individuals and families have been living along the San Pablo-Lucena Philippine National Railway (PNR) Line in Brgy. Del Remedio, San Pablo City for generations. For a duration of nine years, 2013 to 2022, the operations in the said line have been halted, giving the community beside it security and safety from the passing trains. However, with the line being reopened in late 2022, a project for the expansion of its right of way is being carried out, threatening the security of housing of the community living beside it. With this looming threat, this paper aimed to provide an analysis of how government infrastructure programs could affect communities it would have to demolish in order to be implemented, specifically the case of the PNR Expansion Project in Brgy. Del Remedio, San Pablo City. Through a mixed Right to the City-Social License to Operate framework, key informant interviews were conducted with 2-3 people, and a survey was conducted. From a multisectoral perspective from Brgy. Officials, Mothers, Working Class, Youth and Senior Citizens, themes regarding social, economic, political and civil rights arose. Social and Economic dimensions in the participants’ life will be affected negatively by the project, and their political and civil rights regarding the project were analyzed to be impaired as there are no communication that allows for them to participate in dialogues. The interconnectedness of these four dimensions was revealed to be in such a way that their disenfranchisement in regard to the project could mean losses on their socioeconomic status. However, despite this disenfranchisement, analysis from collected data shows the majority perception that SLO for the project is withdrawn.