The NDFP in Utrecht: The Untold Story
The National Democratic Front of the Philippines’ (NDFP) international representatives have been holding office in Utrecht, the Netherlands for several decades now. In fact, among Filipino tourists and several Philippine government functionaries, Utrecht has only two major attractions worth visiting – the Utrecht Dom (once the tallest architecture in flat Netherlands), and the NDFP international information office.
BY D. L. MONDELO
Chief Political Correspondent in Europe
Bulatlat.Com
The NDFP celebrated its 30th anniversary last April 24. Overseas, the focus was the rustic, quiet and pleasant Dutch central city of Utrecht.
It is there where the NDFP maintains an international information office (duly registered with the Utrecht Chamber of Commerce) and where the NDFP’s international work germinated. It is home away from home for most of the NDFP international representatives and personnel, who have lived there since the early 70s.
Increasingly, many Filipinos, even the non-politically-inclined ones, are drawn to Utrecht because of the presence of the NDFP there, among other things. For many of them, Utrecht has become synonymous with the NDFP.
Among the more prominent visitors of the NDFP International Office were former Justice Secretary and GRP peace panel negotiator Silvestre Bello, former Ambassador and GRP peace panel negotiator Howard Dy, Gov. Apeng Yap of Tarlac, Sec. Hernani Braganza, the late ex-ambassador Pacifico Castro, and the Deputy Prime Minister of Nepal. Sen. Loren Legarda was also a visitor when she was still a television broadcaster doing an interview on NDFP representatives.
How the NDFP took root in Utrecht and how it continues to maintain a stable support system from the Dutch people are matters that the NDFP representatives are only too willing to share and make public.
According to Coni Ledesma (Makibaka international representative and NDFP peace panel member), even before she and husband Luis Jalandoni (LJ), who is NDFP chief international representative and NDFP peace panel chief negotiator, came to Utrecht in 1976, there was already a Dutch group campaigning against the Marcos fascist dictatorship.
The Netherlands (this is the formal name of the country, not Holland as is popularly used, because Holland is just a province of the Netherlands) was the best choice for political refugees like Ledesma and Jalandoni because the Netherlands then was a liberal haven for persecuted people escaping brutal U.S.-supported dictatorships in south and central America, Africa and Asia. To illustrate how liberal the political climate in the Netherlands then, the Dutch government in the 70s intervened to provide refuge to many Chilean political prisoners.
Europe in the 70s was a seat of the worldwide anti-war movement. The Vietnam War was in its conclusion. Support for national liberation movements was very hip and popular. Political refugees who came to Europe escaping dictatorships and fascism in their countries, formed many solidarity groups. Many national liberation movements (NLM) found Europe and the Netherlands accommodating and supportive to their cause and some even maintained representatives in the continent.
Thus, European, particularly Dutch, support for the Filipino people’s resistance and the NDFP in the Philippines came as a matter of course.
Geographically, Utrecht is also centrally located and easily accessible from every point in Western Europe.
Shortly after Ledesma and Jalandoni arrived in the Netherlands, the solidarity group formed earlier became a solidarity group for the NDFP.
The NDFP’s presence in Utrecht thus began. According to Jalandoni and Ledesma, the main task of the NDFP International Office then (as it is now) was to provide information on the situation of the Philippines, the people’s resistance, representation and diplomatic work and organizing Filipinos and solidarity groups. It published the NDF Update, which later came out with a French edition. The NDFP also helped in the formation of solidarity groups in Italy, London and Ireland, aside from the one in Utrecht
After only four years of doing its international work in Europe, the NDFP scored a big political victory, together with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) of Nur Misuari. The Permanent People’s Tribunal (PPT) Session on the Philippines, convened in October 1980 in Antwerp, Belgium, declared that the Marcos dictatorship did not anymore represent the Filipino people, and recognized the NDFP and MNLF as the true representatives of the Filipino and Moro people.
The PPT was started by a prominent Italian senator in the 1970s and included renowned Nobel Peace Prize winners who sat as jury during its sessions. Witnesses for the NDFP were representatives from the New People’s Army (NPA), worker, indigenous people, peasant, youth and professional sectors. They were flown in secretly to the tribunal with the help of many European supporters. Continue reading
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