Introduction

The North-South Commuter Railway- Clark Phase 2 Extension Project created a Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM) Team that is responsible for ensuring accurate and timely addressed grievances and inquiries from the Project Affected Persons (PAPs).

As we wanted to harmonize all the grievances information from the Project Affected Persons, the creation of the Grievance Database System is a need to help the grievance officer/PMO to analyze and monitor the timely receipt and resolution of grievances. Through this database, we can easily identify the level of grievances from different locations and, most importantly, our PAPs' top concerns/issues related to our Project.

The GRM Portal is a database system that automatically “receives” complaints sent through online means and generates “response/s” programmed according to a referral system that considers scope (i.e., spam messages will receive a different auto-response vs. legitimate complaints vis-à-vis complaint type), geographic area, and focal points. It also has the efficiency to pre-filter and refer the complaints to appropriate grievance redress officers.

Paired with the GRM Portal is the NSCR-EX Website:

• An interface for PAPs on which to lodge and/or monitor their grievances
• A publicly accessed interface for DOTr to showcase transparency and accountability in the grievance redress process
• A publicly accessed interface for the DOTr and the affected communities to showcase community-driven solutions and interventions around enhancing social safeguards for project-affected persons
• A publicly accessed “Project FAQs” and “Grievance Redress FAQs”

• Receive and facilitate the resolution of PAPs’ concerns and grievances about: 1) physical and economic displacement; 2) environment-related impacts; and 3) other project impacts or concerns (e.g., project staff deportment) which cannot be settled through collective platforms such as stakeholder consultations, due to the complexity of the concern/grievance and/or due to the absence of such platform at the time that the cause for grievance came about, with particular attention to impacts on vulnerable groups.
• Address PAPs’ concerns and complaints promptly, using an understandable and transparent process that is gender responsive, culturally appropriate, and readily accessible to the country’s judicial or administrative remedies.