1891 railway engineer

While correcting the Fili’s draft he received the saddest news from home: Sweetheart and cousin Leonor Rivera, 24 (Rizal was 30), had married in January, 1891, a British engineer working on the railway from Manila to Dagupan.

He accepted an invitation from Nellie Bousted to take a vacation at Biarritz, resort home of the Bousteds in southwest France. He was broken-hearted and in this condition, he proposed marriage to Nellie.

Protection of property rights

It was easy to build a railway system in the 1890s, because the Spanish colonial government strictly enforced new sets of laws then — the Civil Code of 1889 and the Penal Code of 1887.

Property rights then, especially ownership of land by private citizens or the government, were strictly protected by the regime. The Civil Code of 1889 was NOT a harsh law. It is the same code of laws respected and protected by the lowest and highest courts today.

Squatters and ancient rights

Squatters or persons illegally occupying private/public land were NOT classified as INFORMAL DWELLERS. They were called SQUATTERS subject to various sanctions under the Civil Code and penalized by the Penal Code.

Protection of land ownership is an old concept that dates back to Gaius Julius Caesar (100- 44 BC), to Justinian (534 AD), to Napoleon I (1804) and 19th-century Spain that adopted the Napoleonic Code.

AFP and PNP protection badly needed

It’s different now. Railway engineers can’t move an inch to position rails and ties without the protection of battalions of AFP soldiers and PNP officers against 30,000 families of squatters or about 120,000 people at four members per family — which is a low guess.

Spain employed the best engineers in Europe — one of whom moved Rizal to turn "suicidal" when Nellie asked him to embrace Protestantism before she could marry him.

Spain asked the engineers to give PI the latest in railway technology. Rizal traveled incognito to Central Luzon upon arriving in Manila from Hong Kong on June 26, 1892. He crusaded for the organization of La Liga.

The Spanish failure

The one glaring fault of the Spanish railway in PI which MRR and PNR had happily inherited and accepted: Rails and ties were NOT laid on elevated grounds, say, one to two meters above the flood level in Central Luzon.

Flooding of the plains, farms, and fishponds was a natural occurrence long before railways were initially built by Spain and European engineers in PI. The monsoon had existed for millions of years.

If Northrail’s travails are finally laid to rest, it’s worth remembering that trains, modern and old, in Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, and the Americas should provide all-weather transport.

Modern trains

Electricity, NOT diesel, runs modern trains today on sturdy and elevated rails and tracts defying any season without difficulty. I rode on all kinds of trains in Europe, the US, China, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. Comparing trains running in various countries is a kind of education by itself.

Good engineers

The more knowledgeable railway engineers in the world today are probably found in Japan, France, Italy, England, and North America.

Northrail’s boast to start building last November 8, 2004, was thwarted (derailed) by the newly baptized informal settlers known as squatters in more civilized society.

Playing politics all the time

With all these obstacles thrown in the way of our primitive railway system all the planners’ BOASTS about running trains ON TIME may not be realized in the next three or four years.