By LUIS G. JALANDONI
Member, NDFP National Executive Committee
The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) deserves the warmest congratulations and highest commendation on its 42nd anniversary on April 24, 2015. The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), the New People’sI Army (NPA) and the 16 other allied organizations of the NDFP have worked hard, sacrificed much and achieved the establishment of Red political power all over the country in 71 out of the total 81 provinces.
I wish to share with you the 12-point program of the NDFP which was proclaimed at the NDFP Conference in 1994 and ratified by its allied organizations up to November 1995.
- The NDFP seeks to unite the people for the overthrow of the semicolonial and semifeudal system through people’s war and for the completion of the national democratic revolution. Only the power of a united people achieved through revolutionary armed struggle and the united front of revolutionary forces can isolate and destroy the dominance of the US and other foreign monopoly capitalists and the counterrevolutionary state of the comprador big bourgeoisie and landlord class.
- The NDF supports the establishment and consolidation of these organs of political power and paves the way for the formation of the people’s democratic government at various levels.
- Build the people’s army and defense system. The New People’s Army is necessary in order to bring about and guarantee the national and social liberation of the people. It is the main instrument of the entire Filipino people for destroying the reactionary state and establishing a government that will truly serve the interests of the people.
- Uphold and promote the people’s democratic rights by waging the people’s struggle for democratic rights together with their struggle for national liberation.
- Terminate all unequal relations with the United States and other foreign entities.
- Implement genuine agrarian reform, promote agricultural cooperation, raise rural production and employment through modernization of agriculture and rural industrialization and ensure agriculturalsustainability.
- Break the US, big comprador, landlord dominance over the economy, carry out national industrialization and build an independent and self-reliant economy.
- Adopt a comprehensive and progressive social policy.
- Promote a national and progressive people’s culture.
- Uphold the rights of the Bangsamoro and the Cordillera peoples and other indigenous peoples to self-determination and democracy.
- Advance the revolutionary emancipation of women in all spheres.
- Adopt an active, independent and peaceful foreign policy.
Through its programs of land reform, education, health, culture, and self-defense, the NDFP, in representation of the people’s revolutionary forces, has provided the social services needed by millions of people in the vast countryside. It has built the people’s mass organizations of workers, peasants, women, youth, children, indigenous people, and other sectors, which have become the firm foundation of the Red organs of political power.
The National Democratic Front of the Philippines stands for and carries the authority of the people’s democratic government (PDG) consisting of organs of political power in substantial parts all over the Philippines. The PDG constitutes all the revolutionary forces of the Filipino people fighting for national independence and democracy now represented by the NDFP. It includes the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) as the leading party in the aforesaid government, the New People’s Army (NPA) as its armed force, and various mass organizations of workers, peasants, women, youth, professionals and other sectors.
As the NDFP National Council declares in the NDFP Declaration and Program of Action for the Rights and Protection and Welfare of Children issued on 24 April 2012: There is dual state power in the Philippines. One state power is represented by the Manila-based reactionary government (the Government of the Republic of the Philippines) of big compradors and landlords. The other is represented by the rural based revolutionary government of workers and peasants, which has its own Constitution and Guide for Establishing the People’s Democratic Government. The two contending states or governments are co-belligerent forces in a civil war.
As the revolutionary movement valiantly strives to advance from the stage of strategic defensive in our people’s war to reach the threshold of the stage of strategic stalemate in the coming years, the NDFP must further consolidate and expand its forces, further build and strengthen Red political power throughout the country, develop even more its programs of land reform, education, health, culture, and self-defense. It must further develop its revolutionary justice system.
The NDFP is likewise determined to advance its organizing work among children to maximize their potential in contributing to the revolutionary struggle, even as the NDFP strengthens its Special Office for the Protection of Children.
The NDFP warmly welcomes the revolutionary organization of overseas Filipino workers, Compatriots, as a significant force for arousing, mobilizing and organizing the millions of overseas Filipino workers, and maximizing their huge potential to support and participate in the people’s revolutionary struggle now and help build the country with their many talents, skills and capabilities.
The NDFP recognizes and warmly commends all the other NDFP allied organizations for their significant contributions to the Philippine revolutionary struggle. It urges each and every one of the NDFP allied organizations to further develop their organizational strength and significantly advance their capacity to advance the revolutionary work in the country as well as abroad. They can help in the international work by developing fraternal cooperation with international organizations, including winning of support and recognition for the people’s democratic government.
In all arenas of revolutionary struggle, in the armed revolutionary movement as the principal form of struggle, in the revolutionary mass movement, in the parliamentary struggle and struggle for human rights, and in the peace negotiations, the NDFP is resolutely determined to advance the people’s struggle for national and social liberation, for national sovereignty, independence and democracy, and a just and lasting peace.
Speech delivered on the occasion of the NDFP’s 42nd Anniversary
25 April 2015 in Quezon City, Philippines
