Volume V, Number 08. April 30, 2023.

Fifty years ago on 24 April 1973, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines was formed amid the declaration of martial law by the US-Marcos fascist dictatorship. Since then, the Filipino people have possessed three powerful weapons: the Party, the New People’s Army and the NDFP.

As we celebrate this momentous occasion on the 50th anniversary of the united front, the NDFP honors the heroes and martyrs of the people’s war. We give the highest tribute to NDFP Negotiating Panel members and leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) Comrades Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria-Tiamzon. The martyrdom of the Tiamzons is a testament to their revolutionary fervor serving the people and the interests of national democracy and liberation until their last breath.

The NDFP also pays tribute to Comrades Jose Ma. Sison, Fidel V. Agcaoili, Antonio Zumel, Julius Giron as well as other key leaders of the CPP and the NDFP, and peace consultants who have passed away or murdered by reactionary state agents. Further, we also express our deep gratitude to the countless allies of the NDFP who continue to serve the national democratic revolution.

As the most consolidated united front organizations of the Filipino people, the NDFP binds together all progressive classes and sectors of Filipino society in support of the people’s democratic revolution through protracted people’s war. In the course of waging the people’s war, organs of political power at village or inter-village levels, as well as at municipal and inter-municipal and even district levels, have been built based on the organized strength of revolutionary mass organizations, the local Party organizations and armed strength of the New People’s Army. These perform state functions including implementing land reform policies and programs, dispensing justice and resolving contradictions among the people, conducting education and health services.

Taken together, all these comprise the embryo of the People’s Democratic Government of the Philippines, a united front of all progressive and patriotic classes based on the basic alliance of workers and peasants, and under the leadership of the proletariat.

Presently, two governments exist in the Philippine countryside: the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the PDG represented by the NDFP. The PDG is Red and revolutionary; while the GRP is White and reactionary. Both sides are belligerents in the civil war of the past 54 years.