A RECENT announcement by the Metro Pacific Investments Corp. that it is bent on acquiring the 35 percent stake of the Ayala Group in the Light Rail Manila Corp., the operator of Light Rail Transit Line 1 appears to be further stoking the bullish atmosphere already pervading the country’s rail transportation sector.

News item said MPIC chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan wants to become the majority of the LRT 1 operator with a 70.8 percent share. The move by MPIC sends signals that there are more positive developments waiting to happen in the country’s rail transportation sector.

Just a few days prior to the MPIC statement, DOTr Secretary Jaime Bautista announced the awarding of the contract to the group led by San Miguel Corp. for the rehabilitation, management and operation of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

The prospect to have a world-class international airport is no longer impossible because of the apparent enthusiasm on the part of international funding agencies and the local and international business community to be part of the looming transportation infrastructure boom in the country.

This is the case with the North South Commuter Railway project which triggered the groundswell of optimism over developments in the rail sector.

As we discussed in an earlier column, the NSCR is the 147-kilometer rails system that will connect the City of Calamba in the south with the New Clark City in the north.

The latest news is that the laying down of several structural foundations for the expansion of the rail system for the North South Commuter Railway has already started. DOTr Undersecretary for Railways Jeremy Regino had also earlier announced the groundbreaking for portions of the project, keeping hopes alive that it will be finished on time.

Regino remains confident that the inter-agency team implementing NSCR project can meet deadlines despite massive rights-of-way issues facing it.

He said the ROW concerns “are not insurmountable” and that the “whole of government approach” is “one effective strategy that can match the challenge”.

A comprehensive resettlement plan has been prepared to ensure that families affected by the NSCR project are “given a fresh start at a viable and sustainable life in a new and decent community”.

Some 14,000 informal settler families are affected by the project and who are prospective beneficiaries of one of the government’s biggest resettlement programs.

An inter-agency team dealing with the ROW requirements are guided by the directions set by President Bongbong Marcos Jr., Secretary Bautista and the pertinent laws regarding the relocation and resettlement of the affected informal settler families.

It is a wholistic approach where government ensure that the needs of the affected families are considered, addressed and provided.

Regino pointed out. “We are also following a humane process here which ensures that pertinent rights are protected even as we exercise our firm resolve to finish the project on time,” he clarified.

We congratulate the hardworking Secretary Bautista and his rail sector team for its recent feat. The entry of bigger private sector investments into the sector is certainly a good enough reason to keep our hopes high that the end to transportation woes in our country is already in sight.

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