The NDF is the same vicious dog as the CPP-NPA

THE designation last June 23, 2021 by the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) as a terrorist organization that placed it side by side with the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) in that awful list of domestic terrorist groups has ‘completed the circle,’ so to speak, the government’s search for the most dangerous elements seeking to destroy our democratic way of life and who should be exposed and pursued relentlessly if we are to have lasting peace in our land.

And Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) secretary, Eduardo M. Año, in welcoming the ATC has described the matter briefly but concisely:

“The designation exposes the NDF for what it actually is – an integral part and minion of the CPP — which has been working under its command and leadership to ultimately seize power from the government, through armed struggle and other means.”

Sec. Año was also correct in noting that for too long, the Philippine government fell into the trap of believing that the NDF is a separate and distinct organization allied with, but not taking any order from, the CPP. As such, the NDF is the “right entity” to negotiate a peace treaty to end the now over 50 years of ongoing armed conflict in the country initiated by the CPP.

Indeed, as Sec. Año also noted, the façade of legality carefully woven by the NDF into our minds, to include our policy makers and decision-makers was so successful that our government even agreed to grant safety and immunity guarantees to top CPP leaders on the belief (very wrong it turned out) that they are with the NDF and not with the CPP.

And when Sec. Año said this “masquerade” by the CPP has been ended with the inclusion of the NDF in the list of terrorist organizations, we could not agree more.

The CPP and the NDF are one and the same organization, period. And their armed component is the NPA, period.

It is not like that the NDF was organized during the early years of martial law (1973) by other groups and individuals also opposed to the Marcos administration and his imposition of martial rule. And that, subsequently, it decided to “ally” with the CPP-NPA while also agreeing to be placed in a subordinate role by the CPP in the fight against the Marcos regime.

The historical facts about the “birth” of the NDF tells us differently: It is, like the NPA and other sectoral organizations created by the CPP, just another one of its “minions,” as Sec. Año also correctly describes it.

And if the NPA is now seen as a truly fearsome force in the same league as the ISIS or the Abu Sayyaf for its brutality in the killing of civilians and the use of explosives, the NDF has played—and continue to play—the more revolting role of justifying the NPA’s acts of terror and deodorizing them, here and abroad, as “revolutionary acts” committed on behalf of the interest of the “masses” and against the local “oppressing classes.”

More importantly, the NDF has been the effective conduit for the financial and other material support for the CPP-NPA, as well as the wellspring that provide the recruits and bases of operations for the NPA, the reason why despite repeated loses in the field, the NPA’s rank has never diminished.

In other words, the ATC is correct in its decision in designating the NDF as a terrorist organization. Indeed, it is one conclusion that is for us a long time in coming.

The NDF, like the NPA, is the same vicious, rabid dog as the CPP that has this country under their grip for more than 50 years now.

All of them are from the same cut of cloth bathed red with the blood of their victims.