Keynote address of NDFP Chief International Representative Luis Jalandoni on the Conference of National Liberation Movements, April 23,2023, Kurdish Cultural Center, The Hague, The Netherlands
Dear Comrades and Friends,
I just saw a powerful and inspiring lighting rally in Manila to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines. Revolutionary mass organizations of the NDF including the Masapa, health workers’ organization, the CPP and the NPA, bravely proclaimed the revolutionary struggle of the Filipino people and strongly condemning the US-Duterte regime.
This powerful display of revolutionary commitment and determination is a reflection of the determined struggle of the masses in the countryside. In more than 70 provinces throughout the country, the New People’s Army with the support of the mass organizations of the peasantry, the youth, the women, the workers, the indigenous people of the Lumad and Moro people, have won outstanding victories and have built more than 100 guerrilla fronts and established organs of political power. These have built the strong foundation for the establishment of the People’s Democratic Government.
These hard-won victories in the countryside are matched by successful militant struggles in the cities. All the 18 revolutionary organizations of the NDFP are deepening and broadening their membership and capabilities in advancing the people’s democratic revolution towards victory.
The intensificaion of the US imperialist intervention in the Philippines with the Marcos-Duterte scheme of making use of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) to allow the US four additional US military bases in the Philippines, can only mean the intensification of US imperialist intervention in the Philippines.
It is of utmost necessity that the Philippine revolutionary forces, the Communist Party and the New People’s Army, and the revolutionary organizations of the NDF, strengthen and steel themselves in the most acute fight against US imperialism and the Marcos-Duterte regime.
We draw deep inspiration from the struggles for freedom of our forefathers during the Spanish colonial period,. There was the 85-year struggle of the Dagohoy fighters. There were the numerous struggles against Spanish colonialism. There was the revolutionary organization, the Katipunan under Andres Bonifacio, who waged the first armed struggle for liberation in Asia. Today, we continue that struggle. And today, we are guided by the teaching of the great leaders, Marx, Lenin and Mao. We must pursue our revolutionary struggle onward to victory.
The great victory of the Vietnamese people in defeating the most powerful military power of the US is for us also a source of inspiration. The Vietnamese people, the Laotian and Cambodian people’s revolutionary struggles have bequeathed us a priceless legacy. They overcame numerous obstacles and offered great sacrifices to defeat US imperialism, at that time the most powerful military power!
Dear Comrades from the different revolutionary struggles in the world. We recognize and admire your revolutionary struggles. We believe it is very strategically important for us to share among us a revolutionary reciprocal solidarity. We have to learn from each other’s struggle. We have a common enemy, which is US imperialism. We have to help each other. We have to find the most creative ways of supporting each other. This reciprocal solidarity among us revolutionaries is a necessity of our times. It is, I believe, the challenge of our times. We must creatively find and effectively build the revolutionary solidarity among various revolutionary movements.
With regards to the point of the peace process, we believe it is of great and decisive importance that the United Nations’ paradigm of DDR, Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reactivation to civilian life be most firmly rejected.
In our case in the Philippine revolutionary struggle, we have strictly and very firmly adhered to the basic documents signed by both the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines. A most important document was the first one signed. It is The Hague Joint Declaration of 1992. This agreement between the NDF and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) was an agreement of parity and non-capitulation!
Therefore, the Hague Joint Declaration very firmly rejects surrender or capitulation. It is a firm condemnation of the UN DDR paradigm.
For us, the peace process is part of the struggle for national liberation and democracy.
Hence, in our determined search for revolutionary solidarity among revolutionary movements, we in the Philippines take to heart the final words of our beloved Comrade Jose Maria Sison shortly before his death in December 22, 2022: “The Filipino people’s democratic revolution is invincible!”
Comrades, we are sure that your revolution, just like ours, carries the inspiration that can guide all of us in being creative revolutionaries, to find the most creative and effective ways for developing our revolutionary solidarity!
Thank you.
