MANILA, Philippines — Bulacan farmers asked Saturday Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) Secretary Mar Roxas to work for the scrapping of the Metro Rail Transit Line-7 (MRT 7) project, saying true leadership should drive him to do so.

“The MRT 7 project will ram through our farmlands and evict more than 300 families. We challenge incoming Secretary Mar Roxas to stop this anti-farmer project,” says Vivencia Motita, President of the Tungkong Mangga Upland Farmers Association, Inc. (TMUFAI).

The MRT 7’s depot and intermodal bus-train station will be coupled with a commercial, residential project,” which will be built at the center of the 311-hectare contested agricultural land in Tungkong Mangga, San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan.

“Buburahin sa mapa ng MRT 7 project ang aming mga komunidad [The MRT project will vanish our community],” says Motita.

As they aired their challenge to Roxas, Motita expressed fears that the new DoTC secretary will allow the project to push through because he is a member of the Araneta clan, which will benefit from the project.

“As a member of the Araneta family who stands to benefit from the MRT 7 project, Roxas must have some sense of delicadeza as the project smacks of conflict of interest. Or else, the MRT would now mean as Mar Roxas’ Train,” the peasant leader said.