This Week’s Milestones: Dec. 2-8, 2018

Dec. 2, 2014

The Calamba-Tutuban route of the Philippine National Railways (PNR) was inaugurated to provide an affordable alternative to commuters south of Metro Manila.

The new route was the seventh PNR station to be opened in a year after the Muntinlupa, San Pedro, Biñan, Santa Rosa, Cabuyao and Mamatid stations were launched.

The new route expanded the PNR, Southeast Asia’s longest-serving railway system, to 56 kilometers.

Some 3,000 to 5,000 passengers were estimated to be added to the 70,000 passengers using the railway system daily.

Dec. 4, 2017

The first block of Perez Park in Lucena City, Quezon province, is reopened to the public as part of a cultural heritage protection program.

The park is one of the country’s surviving recreation areas built during the early years of American colonization.

Named after the donor, former Gov. Don Felimon Perez, the park was designed by American architect William Parsons, built in 1924, and inaugurated in 1927.

The park, which is one of the original parks in the country with a sunken design, sits on a 7-hectare property along with the century-old provincial capitol building, Quezon Convention Center, provincial jail, Regional Trial Court building and several provincial government offices.

It features a three-block promenade design.

The first block includes a walkway, playground and a man-made cave doubling as a bandstand where top musicians performed for free in the 1920s and 1930s.

Compiled by Kathleen de Villa, Inquirer Research