Last August 26, more than 30 organizations and allies of Friends of the Filipino People in Struggle (FFPS) from 10 countries participated in its annual Global Day of Action. This year, the international group condemned the Marcos regime for promoting sham peace and its escalating repression of the Filipino people’s struggle.

According to the group, various activities were held in cities across Europe, North America, Hong Kong, and New Zealand. Some groups protested in front of the Philippine embassies and consulates in their respective countries, while others collectively watched films, organized discussions, mounted posters, painted graffiti, and more.

“How can Marcos claim to champion ‘peace’ when he is the number one sower of unpeace?” FFPS chairperson Robert Reid said. He said that while Filipinos experience landlessness, low wages, rising prices, and other systemic problems under the Marcos leadership, the government relentlessly attacks anyone who dares to resist.

“We should call it for what it is: a war of suppression. Massacres, murders, military control and bombings of rural communities have become the policy of this government,” Reid said. In a forum last August 18, FFPS denounced the Marcos regime’s new policy, the National Action Plan for Unity, Peace and Development (NAP-UPD) 2025-2028, as the framework for its current campaign of repression.

Reid stated that these policies are structured and supported by the US. Under the regime, US grip on the country has intensified, with continuous military funding, establishment of military bases, and launching of war games in Philippine territory. “Foreign military aid and political support fuel Marcos’ war crimes,” Reid said.

Amid the regime’s campaign of repression and intensified US intervention in the country, FFPS said that the revolutionary movement represented by the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) is now the best path to achieve real change for the Filipino people.

“Its program addresses the real problems driving the Filipino people to take up arms. A just and lasting peace can only come when the people’s desire for national liberation and social change is fulfilled,” Maya Solidarity coordinator in the Netherlands Lidia Rodenburg said.

Canada-Philippine Solidarity Organization’s Rei X said, “The national democratic revolution is the expression of the Filipino people’s will for genuine change, and the people’s war waged in the countryside is a legitimate means to achieve it.”

Reid said, “History has proven that no amount of fascist suppression will succeed in extinguishing the revolutionary fire of the Filipino people’s democratic revolution.” He called on all FFPS organizations and allies to further strengthen their ranks and support to contribute meaningfully to the Filipino people’s struggle.

The annual action of FFPS is held every last week of August to commemorate the Cry of Pugad Lawin, the historic event on August 23, 1896, when the Katipunan led by Andres Bonifacio proclaimed the uprising against Spanish colonialists.