PHOTO ESSAY
Towerville

 “Hindi ko maintindihan bakit ang tawag sa ganito/ay bahay…”*
(I don’t understand why this is called / a house) 

- Gary Granada
Bahay (House) 

Towerville is a place that does not live up to his name, much to the detriment of residents who were promised by government to have a life better than what they had along the railway tracks. 

PHOTOS BY DABET CASTAÑEDA
TEXT AND CAPTIONS BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO 

Towerville. The name summons images of elegance and wealth. One conjures images of towering mansions surrounded by pine trees and other expensive landscapes as seen in posh subdivisions for the “blue-blooded.” 

This is a place, however, which has neither towering mansions nor expensive landscapes. Towerville Subdivision is a government relocation project in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan (two and a half hours north of Manila) for former railway dwellers whose shanties were demolished to give way to a railroad project funded by the Chinese government. 

A look at the photos of Towerville shows that the name does not live up to the place. One immediately remembers a song by protest singer Gary Granada titled Bahay (House): “Hindi ko maintindihan bakit ang tawag sa ganito/Ay bahay.” (I don’t understand why they call this / a house.) 

Indeed, even the dead have a better place to rest than the residents of Towerville. 

In Towerville, half of the houses are abandoned as they have no roofs, windows, doors and floors. The reason is simple: The government reneged on its promise to provide decent housing to the railway dwellers. They were left to fend for themselves after they were given construction materials and a negligible amount. There in the mountains of Bulacan, there is no rational source of livelihood. 

Thus they could not even afford to have water and electricity. For their water needs they have to turn to a river that is not as clean as it should be, and for their lighting and cooking needs they have to get firewood from the forests that surround the community. 

A Towerville resident carries wood for cooking and fence-making

They were promised better homes than the shanties they were driven from, but instead they were given graves. Bulatlat

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