Homeowners plead with DOTr to consider ‘unquantifiable emotional cost’

DAVAO CITY – Homeowners in a subdivision here where the Mindanao Railway will traverse have asked the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to consider the “unquantifiable emotional cost” of putting their homes along the path of the railway project.

This was disclosed by Jesito V. Villamor, president of the Monteritz Classic Estates Homeowners Association, Inc. (MCEHAI) on Monday.

Villamor said the while the residents did not oppose the project, they questioned the abrupt changes to the alignment, which would now have the railway cut through their subdivision.

He said it was not appropriate for a railway to traverse inside an exclusive subdivision when DOTr would insist with the construction of a viaduct “passing over the roofs of our homes” in Phase 1 of Monteriz as part of the 102-kilometer railway path, traversing Tagum City, Davao City, and Digos City.

Phase 1 of the subdivision has 40 homeowners and 67 lot owners, he said.

He said the initial plan that was presented to homeowners in October 2018, indicated the path would traverse the soon-to-be-developed Town Plaza, located just outside Monteritz.

He said they learned from the DOTr in a meeting at Monteritz last January 22, that the “initial” alignment had been dropped and that the latest alignment would now pass through the subdivision, specifically on Fitzgerald Street.

On the same day, the board of MCEHAI passed a resolution objecting to the “alignment of the Tagum-Davao Digos railway project, which alignment will pass through within the premises of phase 1.”

“Ang masama pa nito naririnig namin may sementeryo na iniwasan in respect of the dead. Kung nagawang respetuhin yung mga patay bakit hindi yung buhay? (What is worse, we have heard that they avoided the cemetery in respect of the dead. If they can respect the dead, why can they do that to the living?)” he said.

Since no consultation was conducted on the latest alignment, he said they had to barge into the February 21 committee hearing at the City Council of Davao to express their concerns directly to DOTr and representative from the National Economic Development Authority in Davao Region.

“Can you imagine living in a subdivision where the train passes by above you every six minutes. Makakatulog ka ba dyan? (Can you still sleep?),” he said.

He said the developer UrbanEast Developments Inc., can still redesign the structure of the Town Plaza to accommodate the plan of the DOTr

while residents can no longer have that similar chance as they already have invested their “hard earned income to build” their houses.

“We have so many retirees and elderly whose spouses are sick,” Villamor said.

He said that they would have accepted the DOTr proposal if there is no other option where to locate the railway path but added the agency has many other choices since the latest alignment is already the fifth