NDF-MILF Alliance
Unity and cooperation against the reactionary enemy

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

The National Democratic Front (NDF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the two largest and most significant revolutionary armed forces in the Philippines today, are both vigorously expanding and intensifying their armed struggles. Recently, both made public their new and higher level of unity, cooperation and alliance against the Manila-based neo-colonial and reactionary puppet government and its US imperialist master.

In their declaration, NDF and MILF leaders stressed that the alliance will further consolidate and strengthen the revolutionary struggles of the Moro and Filipino people so that they could concentrate stronger blows against the reactionary enemy which exists primarily to exploit and oppress them.

Concomitant with the advance of the just and revolutionary struggle in Mindanao and the entire nation, the NDF-MILF alliance develops further the understanding, trust and respect between the Moro and Filipino peoples, whom US imperialists and local reactionaries have, for so long, divided and played against each other.

The NDF alliance with the MILF is based on the NDF program�s recognition and support of the Moro people�s struggle for self-determination and freedom. On the other hand, the MILF has declared support for the Filipino people�s struggle for national liberation and democracy. The two movements are naturally and closely related due to their long common history of arduous and bloody

Their alliance reflects the positive experience and deepening of mutual understanding not only among leading elements but also among ordinary members and the masses who support the two revolutionary movements.

The national significance of and the urgent need for the established alliance have been proven by the widespread and large-scale military offensives and the intensifying fascist suppression being perpetrated by the reactionary state in Mindanao.

More than a third of the AFP�s manuever battallions, which include 34 infantry battalions of the Philippine Army, the Navy�s six Marine Battalion Landing Teams and a battalion of the Philippine Air Force, are deployed in guerrilla fronts of the New People�s Army (NPA) and camps of the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF) in Mindanao. There is a high concentration of highpowered weapons of the AFP in the island, such as fighter planes and armored vehicles, tanks and cannons.

The Estrada regime is intensifying its counterrevolutionary war upon orders of US imperialists to secure Mindanao as a main port for their warships and a runway for their war planes.

Foreign monopoly companies likewise have their eyes set on the oil deposits in Liguasan Marsh and the rich mineral deposits in different parts of the island. Militarization and fascist abuse are most intense not only in areas where the NPA and BIAF are strongest but also in the areas covered by these giant foreign companies� speculation and mining activities.

The AFP and PNP�s campaigns of suppression have been going on without letup in Mindanao. Cruelty and violations of the human rights of the people in the island, especially of the toiling masses, continue and go on unabated.

There is once again a widespread drive to form CAFGUs and fanatical vigilante groups. Towards this, the reactionary state actively provokes conflicts between the Moro and non-Moro masses. They shell and bomb not only open and suspected camps of the NPA and BIAF; even barrios and communities, homes and farms of ordinary peasants and minorities are not spared. Burning of houses and crops, arbitrary arrests and searches, tortures and execution of prisoners are widespread.

Despite all these, the NDF and MILF, the NPA and BIAF have further consolidated and strengthened. The revolutionary movement led by the Communist Party of the Philippines has vigorously revitalized itself and is now advancing. (see related article)

The MILF has militantly stood its ground against the reactionary government�s pacification campaign and has squarely faced the AFP�s fascist attacks after Nur Misuari and his MNLF betrayed the Moro struggle. Over the years, it has established and strengthened its camps.

The MILF�s political authority prevails within its 47 camps, which in turn, serve as base areas for its struggle for an independent Moro state. Each camp covers entire barrios. The biggest are in Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Lanao del Norte, Davao del Norte, North Cotabato, Saranggani, Zamboanga del Norte and Sultan Kudarat. Camp Abubakar, along the Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur border, serves as the main camp.

The MILF and BIAF continue to consolidate their armed strength to actively defend these camps against attacks by the reactionary state. In line with this, they have taken a militant stance in engaging in peace talks with the reactionary goverment to deflect AFP attacks on their camps, assert their right to establish and expand these and continue advancing the struggle of the Moro people for self-determination.

The NDF assures the MILF that it recognizes and respects the identity, integrity and way of life and culture of the Moro people and is against any form of national oppression, discrimination, chauvinism and coercion against them.

The NDF guarantees the right of the Moro people to self-determination, extending to their right to secede from a state of national oppression and to establish their own state or choose federation or local autonomy under the People�s Democratic Republic of the Philippines.

The NDF recognizes their right to a Moro homeland and to a system embodying the Moro people�s social, political, economic and religious aspirations under a leadership that they so elect. In line with the principles of unity of the revolutionary movement, the NDFP assures the MILF that any understanding between the two movements shall be conducted within the framework of recognition and respect for each other�s identity, integrity, principles and program and on the independence and initiative of each organization.

It is expected that through the continued and regular meetings of authorized representatives from both sides and, if necessary, of representatives from the highest and most basic levels of the organization, the objective of further consolidating and developing the revolutionary alliance between the Filipino people and the Moro people will be advanced.

00 January 1999
English Edition

	Editorial Impose revolutionary punishment on Imelda and other cohorts of the Marcos dictatorship
	Fascist violence and counterrevolutionary war in the countryside
	The fascist crimes of Gen. Panfilo Lacson in Cebu
	Against Lacson�s Warrantless Arrest
	NPA arrests AFP General, 2 other officers
	Who is considered a combatant?
	REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT IN MINDANAO: Along the path of steadfast advance
	NDF-MILF Alliance Unity and cooperation against the reactionary enemy
	In the name of the law Landgrabbing in Cagayan Valley
	Long live proletarian internationalism!
	News