On the 30th year of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines More Victories of the People's Democratic Revolution

Executive Committee
National Democratic Front of the Philippines
April 24, 2003

Today, we celebrate the founding of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) 30 years ago on April 24, 1973.

Those 30 years are truly remarkable. From 1973 up to 1986 was a period of steady advance of the revolutionary armed struggle, urban mass movement and national united front under the conditions of Marcos fascist rule. This period covered the great upsurge of the people's war and the urban mass movement from 1983 to 1986 when the people's uprising swept Marcos from power.

The period from 1987 to 1994 saw the weakening of the revolutionary organizations comprising the NDFP due to "Left" and Right political opportunist errors and factionalism. The reactionaries even made a premature announcement of the "strategic defeat" of the New People's Army (NPA) in 1994.

But from 1995 onward, there has been a resurgence of our revolutionary organizations. This is primarily due to the rectification initiated by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) of the ideological and political errors in 1992.

The NPA now has the equivalent of 27 battalions of fulltime Red fighters with high-powered rifles. Its units operate in 128 guerrilla fronts that cover some 8,000 barrios in most of the 70 provinces nationwide. Its guerrilla units now launch more successful tactical offensives because they have much wider areas of maneuver and bigger mass base. This mass base is the result of painstaking work to set up more people's organizations and local organs of political power and to launch rent reduction campaigns.

To stem the advance of the people's war, the Arroyo regime has re-launched the "all-out war" policy, refurbishing the Armed Forces of the Philippines' (AFP) old counter-insurgency strategy and tactics. It has also sought armed intervention by the United States and designation of the CPP and NPA as "foreign terrorist organizations."

The legal democratic movement in the cities has also advanced steadily since 1994. It rose to a new height in the broad oust Estrada movement which culminated in 2001. In conjunction with other political forces, the legal democratic movement has hastened the political isolation of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and derailed her political plan for 2004. It is also in the forefront of the movement against US wars of aggression.

While active in the people's struggles, most of the underground revolutionary organizations in the urban areas have also been able to strengthen themselves.

Through its own structure and its allied organizations, the NDFP has developed fruitful relations with an increasing number of allies both in the countryside and in the cities.

The NDFP has also entered into peace negotiations with the government (GRP) since 1992, gaining greater political recognition and other advantages in the process. It has also foiled the GRP's attempts to use the negotiations to deceive the people and the revolutionary forces. The NDFP has refused to be intimidated by the GRP's issuance of ultimatum for it to surrender.

Greatly reinvigorated and on correct political course, the allied organizations of the NDFP are now ready to raise the level of the people's war and the revolutionary mass movement. The NDFP will work with different allies in bringing down the Arroyo regime and opposing US armed intervention in the country and US wars of aggression.

With favorable objective conditions in the country and in the world, the NDFP will win more victories as it advances the people's democratic revolution.

Long live the NDFP!

Long live the Filipino people!###

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