| National Democratic Front of the Philippines | |
| Native Name: | Pambansang Demokratikong Prente ng Pilipinas |
| Native Name Lang: | tl |
| Founders: | Jose Maria Sison Fidel Agcaoili Luis Jalandoni |
| Leader: | Luis Jalandoni Julieta De Lima-Sison |
| Dates: | April 24, 1973 – present |
| Area: | Philippines |
| Newspaper: | Liberation |
| Ideology: | Communism National democracy Marxism–Leninism–Maoism |
| Position: | Far-left |
| Designated As Terror Group By: | |
The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) (Filipino: Pambansang Demokratikong Prente ng Pilipinas (PDPP)) is a coalition of revolutionary social and economic justice organizations, agricultural unions, trade unions, indigenous rights groups, leftist political parties, and other related groups in the Philippines.[4] It belongs to the much broader National Democracy Movement and the communist rebellion in the Philippines.[5]
The Government of the Philippines, through the Anti-Terrorism Council, declared the group a terrorist organization in 2021.[6] [7] [8]
Prior to the creation of the NDF, many of its affiliated organizations had already existed, including the Kabataang Makabayan and the Malayang Kilusan ng Bagong Kababaihan. In 1971, the Preparatory Commission for the National Democratic Front was formed, under the initiative of the Communist Party of the Philippines, in order to bring together all the various revolutionary organizations that had been forced underground by martial law under Ferdinand Marcos.[9]
The Preparatory Commission published a Ten Point Program on April 24, 1973, marking the founding of the NDF as a "revolutionary united front organization of the Filipino people fighting for national freedom and for the democratic rights of the people." Since its founding, the NDF has served as the political wing of the CPP, building diplomatic relations abroad and representing it in peace negotiations. Its primary work is expanding political work in the cities through workers' strikes, student boycotts and protests, and aiding the revolution in the countryside.[10]
In the 1980's, elements of the CPP attempted to liquidate the NDFP and establish an organization called the Bagong Katipunan (New Katipunan) instead. Unlike the NDFP, the proposed Bagong Katipunan would be a federation of which the CPP was in equal standing to other revolutionary mass organizations. This motion was eventually defeated as part of the Second Great Rectification Movement.[11]
The NDF has continued its work among the various sectors of Filipino society, often protesting various laws and development programs that it deems as aggravating the "basic problems of the masses" including CARP, Philippines 2000, Visiting Forces Agreement and counter-insurgency programs.[12]
The NDFP adopted the following 12-point program to bring about "national liberation and democracy [that] seeks to provide a broad basis of unity for all social classes, sectors, groups and individual Filipinos here and abroad desirous of genuine national freedom and democracy, lasting peace and a progressive Philippines.":[13] [14]
Member of the front include:[15]
Movement of New Women) Revisited: The Place of Women’s Liberation in Revolutionary Theory and Practice.” Kasarinlan A Philippine Quarterly of Third World Studies, vol. 3, no. 4, Jan. 1988, pp. 26–35.
Philippines