Compatriots, a revolutionary organization of Filipino migrants, was successfully launched in February this year in Asia-Pacific. Compatriots organizes among the 15 million Filipino migrants all over the world.
Since the late-dictator Marcos enacted the labor export policy in the 1970s, successive reactionary regimes have perpetuated this strategy, forcing many Filipinos to work abroad, and relying heavily on their remittances to ease the country’s employment and economic crisis.
As of 2023, around 10,000 Filipinos leave the country daily due to lack of employment and opportunities in the Philippines. They endure leaving their families behind, all in pursuit of a promise for a better life. In reality, many Filipino migrants often face abuse, labor rights violations, discrimination, violence and even death in foreign countries.
The numerous cases of human rights violations and injustice against migrant workers, including the high-profile cases of Flor Contemplacion, Sarah Balabagan and Mary Jane Veloso, underscore the Philippine reactionary regimes’ criminal neglect and complete disregard for the rights and welfare of migrants.
At the launch, Compatriots stressed that Filipino migrants are an important force in the national liberation movement, emphasizing the necessity to build organizations among their ranks to promote their democratic rights and mobilize them for the national democratic revolution.
The delegates from various countries strongly affirmed their commitment to advancing the interests of Filipino migrants.
They also highlighted the challenges of strengthening the Filipino migrants movement against exploitative and oppressive puppet regimes in the Philippines as well as amplifying support for protracted people’s war amidst intensifying fascism globally.
Compatriots further vowed to continue expanding and consolidating migrant movements to advance the national democratic revolution under the guidance of the Communist Party of the Philippines, as the only solution to forced migration.
The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) is the revolutionary united front organization of the Filipino people fighting for national freedom and for the democratic rights of the people. The NDFP seeks to develop and coordinate all progressive classes, sectors and forces in the Filipino people’s struggle to end the rule of US imperialism and its local allies of big landlords and compradors, and attain national and social liberation.