The National Democratic Movement has its origins in against former president Ferdinand Marcos during the late 1960s and early 1970s , but in its entirety is interpreted by the ND as a continuation of struggles since the 1896 Philippine Revolution led by the Katipunan . As a result of sustained economic , political , and military abuses during the Marcos dictatorship , several figures such as Jose Maria Sison ( writing under the eponym Amado Guerrero ) proposed that the creation of a revolutionary mass movement of a national democratic character was necessary to overcome the " three basic problems " underpinning the oppressive conditions of Philippine society in the 1970s . Sison 's vision uses Marxist – Leninist – Maoist principles for social analysis and in carrying out people 's democracy or national democracy : Once martial law was lifted in 1981 and Corazon Aquino was elected to the Presidency in 1986 after the People Power Revolution , corruption and abuse of government power remained endemic in the Philippine political system , which according to the ND were exemplified by the Mendiola massacre , the counter-insurgency programs waged against the armed groups of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the New People 's Army , embezzlement and graft during the terms of Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo , and the 2004 Hacienda Luisita massacre . According to the " ND analysis " espoused by Sison and others throughout the 1970s until today , the continuation of human rights violations in the Philippines at the hands of government officials and other social , economic , and political injustices highlight the need of liberating the nation the imperialist forces — primarily led , from what ND proponents identifies , the United States . As a former U.S. colony , the Philippines ' dynamic with the United States dates back to the Philippine – American War
Mendiola massacre
Mendiola massacre
National Democracy Movement (Philippines)