“Nothing’s new. Don’t make the Filipino dance on an old skipping record,” said the NPA-Quezon reacting on the announcement last week by Human Settlements and Urban Development that the Marcos Jr. government is eyeing a 70,000 hectare land area in the province of Quezon where a new city will be developed to ease the traffic problem in Metro Manila.

“This is reminiscent of the Ministry of Human Settlement (MHS) in the 70s led by no less than Imelda Marcos,” Ka Cleo del Mundo, spokesperson of the NPA-Quezon said.

The red guerilla stresed in their statement that any government project of the Marcoses during the martial law era is a real nightmare for the Filipino people.

“So what’s the point of resurrecting Imelda Marcos’ old concept of “Lungsod Silangan” that will stretch between Infanta and Umiray facing the Pacific ocean?” del Mundo questioning the government’s project.

The NPA-Quezon believe that it will displace and drive thousands of local population away from their home and livelihood, the Dumagat and Remontado tribe included.

Del Mundo recommended a long term solution to the traffic in Metro Manila. “Instead of converting tens of thousands of hectares of farm lands, forests and coastal areas, a genuine agrarian reform should be implemented in the countryside.”

“Vast unproductive haciendas in the Bondoc Peninsula, for example, should be confiscated from the landlords then distribute the land for free to the farmers, including the urban poor people.”

According to the NPA, this will pave the way for more livelihood and job opportunities in the countryside that will eventually pull back the local populace driven away by poverty looking for greener pasture in the cities, thereby systematically decongesting the National Capital Region.

“This landlessness, in fact, is the root cause of armed conflict in the countryside, which leads the NPA and the national democratic movement in implementing agrarian revolution as the fundamental solution.”

“With that, the NPA remains relevant and continuously gain support from the poor farmers in the countryside,” the NPA statement ended.#