TRAVELING by bus through a grueling 12-hour road trip to Cagayan from Manila would be a breeze at less than six hours if only a railway connects them soon.
Expressing serious interest for a modern railway, Puwersa ng Masa senatorial bet Juan Ponce Enrile said the project to revive the Cagayan Valley Railway (CVR) will bring the Philippines, through Northern Luzon, much closer to five of the country’s leading trade partners—Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the United States.
“It’s also where the two great oceans, the North China Sea and the Pacific Ocean, merge at Escarpada Point in the First District of Cagayan, where commerce with other countries would be an advantage to us as we can practice in our favor the economy of distance and time by air and by sea,” Enrile explained.
“The distance between Metro Manila and Santa Ana, Cagayan, is more than 600 kilometers of many actual turns, dips and raises the rail will take, but construction of the railway line will be doable because of modern technology and engineering,” Enrile said.
“The line’s highest elevation inside the proposed 10-kilometer Caraballo Mountain tunnel, for example, is estimated at 500 meters above sea level,” Enrile said.
As for other linking routes, it has been proposed that the abandoned North Line would be rehabilitated by the North Luzon Railways Corporation (North Rail). Its route south of San Jose would use abandoned lines: the Tarlac branch to Muñoz, Nueva Ecija, and the Balagtas-Cabanatuan link between Cabanatuan and Muñoz.
Because it bypasses Tarlac, this line brings Cagayan Valley 16 kilometers (km) closer to Metro Manila. A Cagayan Valley Railways Authority (CVRA) has in fact been proposed to operate a Cagayan Valley-Metro Manila line.
The CVRA would operate a 467-km main line with possibly four branch lines, plus the so-called Sierra Madre Line linking Cagayan with Ilocos and the Kalinga-Tabuk and Ifugao-Banawe lines.
The Conceptual Master Plan of the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority under Republic Act 7922, masterfully prepared by Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile himself, also provides for a railroad right of way linking the Port Irene seaport and air-cargo terminal in Santa Ana, Cagayan.
According to Gary L. Satre, writing in the Japan Railway & Transport Review, the proposed Cagayan Valley Railway Extension Project, started in the early 1880s, runs from San Jose, Nueva Ecija, through a tunnel at the Caraballo Mountain, down to Tuguegarao City in Cagayan.
Its modern versions was supposed to be completed in the mid-1960s but fell flat when the Tarlac line was ditched.
The first 196-kilometer line, which opened in 1892, started from Manila to Bulacan all the way to Dagupan. A Spanish royal decree in 1882 directed its extension from present-day Balagtas, Bulacan, to Tuguegarao, Cagayan, with another line going south to Bicol. The latter was completed by the Americans; the former wasn’t.
By 1906, four branch lines—long since abandoned—were added, including a 91.5-km line from Balagtas to Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija, the closest the tracks got to the Cagayan Valley. By 1929, the line was extended to San Fernando, La Union, and 10 years later to San Jose, Nueva Ecija, in the foothills of the Caraballo Mountain.
Then it was proposed to extend the line 270 km from Manila to Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya, and up to Aparri to ferry passengers and farm produce, mostly tobacco, from the Cagayan provinces, especially Isabela.
During the Spanish colonial rule, according to Satre, the original concessionaire of the North Line was the English-owned Manila Railroad Co. (MRC) of London. After the Philippine-American War, the franchise was reclaimed by its British owners in 1900.
In 1950 the MRC was authorized to rehabilitate and extend the North Line by 108 km from San Jose, Nueva Ecija, to Echague, Isabela, and 440 km further to Aparri, Cagayan.
President Ramon Magsaysay was actually the MRC General Manager in the last three months of 1951 before his election in 1953. His first-hand knowledge on the importance of a modern railroad led to the acquisition of a new fleet of diesel locomotives from Japan in 1956.
During his term, the North Line was extended beyond San Fernando, La Union, to Bacnotan.
In 1957, P78 million was set aside for a four-year program to extend the line from San Jose to Tuguegarao. For a while then, 75 years after the first Spanish royal decree, it looked like the North Line was going to extend 306 km and finally reach Cagayan Valley.
Construction even started from Cordon to Tuguegarao in 1961, with provisions for a tunnel through the Caraballo Mountain.
Rail sections were built here and there between Cordon and Enrile town, Cagayan—with Tuguegarao less than 11 km away. But in 1965, work was grounded.
Other lines were to be built from San Jose to Maringalo, Maringalo to South Portal, South Portal to Bayombong and finally from Bayombong to Tuguegarao.
Then in 1962, for the first time since the peso was pegged at 2 to $1, President Diosdado Macapagal decontrolled the currency and the peso fell to 3.90 to the dollar. It was a big blow to the North Line Extension project.
By 1966, President Ferdinand Marcos went to Tokyo to seek more funding for the project. Never mind that the tunnel-boring machinery for cutting through the Caraballo Mountain had arrived, money was allocated instead to the Maharlika Highway, or the Japan-Philippine Friendship Highway.
Mr. Satre obtained a masters degree from the University of the Philippines after working as a US Navy journalist. He is an associate trainer at the South East Asia Speakers and Trainers Bureau of Makati City. He also writes and speaks on railroad issues in the Philippines.
To reach the writer, e-mail cecilio.arillo@gmail.com.