How The KDP Helped One Organizer Find Her Way Home

Melody Foronda on the history of the Union of Democratic Filipinos. Melody is a community organizer and secretary general of Migrante USA. She shares a story with deep connections to her own journey becoming a community organizer.

Tiên Nguyễn: What is your favorite story to tell from Asian American history?

Melody Foronda: One of my favorite Asian American stories to tell is the story of the KDP, which stands for Katipunan ng mga Demokratikong Pilipino or Union of Democratic Filipinos. The reason it’s one of my favorite stories to tell is because it is a story that really helped form my own politics growing up as a Filipino American in the U.S. and not really knowing my people’s history.

When I got to college, that was something I was really searching for. My Asian American professor was teaching us about different Asian American social movements and communities who were fighting back against oppression and U.S. intervention in their home countries that made our homelands poor and forced people to leave in search for a better life. I was also learning about the Black Panther Party and about how Latino communities were also organizing against racism, economic exploitation, and war. So it really was a big question for me, like, “Where are the Filipinos in this struggle?”

It wasn’t until I learned about the story of the KDP that I began to answer that question. KDP was an organization that was started in the 70s by Filipinos who had migrated or immigrated here to the U.S. and were really driven to leave because of the growing economic and political crisis in the Philippines—the widespread poverty, joblessness, and landlessness that people were experiencing, and also the corruption and fascist repression at that time under President Marcos Senior. The people that moved here to the U.S. wanted to take up the cause of fighting back against the authoritarian regime under Marcos that was backed and supported by the U.S. 

As an organization, the KDP provided education to communities here in the U.S. and organized events and protests to raise people’s awareness about the situation. They inspired many people to join the fight and connect the fight with other liberation struggles. It taught me that even as a Filipino in the U.S, we have a role to play in the struggle for genuine freedom and democracy back home in the Philippines, and to link up with others who share those common issues.

What happened to the KDP?

Unfortunately, they were not able to sustain their organization. Some of the members decided to focus on changing the conditions here in the U.S. only, and saw fighting for change in the Philippines as secondary.

While they didn’t last, there were organizations that were born some decades after that took up the cause to address the roots of forced migration of Filipinos to this country. So organizations like Migrante and Gabriela continued that fight.

Why do you love this story so much?

When I was younger, I did feel separated from the Philippines, even though I still felt like, “that’s my motherland.” I came from a Navy family, so we praised the U.S. military. Also, my family is religious, so we also were taught to kind of pray away, like, problems, and at the same time, we are also taught to be kind to your neighbors and try to treat people with love and respect.

But I wanted to understand: why did my family have to leave in the first place? Why do so many of our families have to leave in the first place? I think learning about the KDP led me to finding those answers. It really changed my view of what it means to be Filipino, and that we’re not just these quiet, subservient people that take the bread crumbs that our colonizers have forced us to be left with. There’s really a community of people that have been fighting back and trying to struggle for our freedom and our liberation. 

The story of the KDP was the beginning of helping me to find my way back home. That’s why it’s one of my favorite stories.

This story also inspired me to get involved in the larger movement for a change and become a community organizer, and really take up the issues that Filipinos today are facing, especially, like, Filipino migrants and workers here in the U.S. who come here in search of a better life.

What I want Filipinos to see is that we don’t have to just accept these conditions and that we have an important role to play as Filipinos overseas in ending forced migration. It starts with us addressing the issues that we might be experiencing here, such as exploitation in the workplace or organizing for a livable wage. We’re continuing the legacy of fighting back.

I love that. Thank you for sharing why that story has such a personal resonance for you. Do you have any reading recommendations for us?

The book I would recommend is called PSR, Philippine Society and Revolution by Amado Guerrero, which is actually the alias for Jose Maria Sison, leader in the movement for a national democracy in the Philippines. He wrote this book in the 70s to really answer the question, “hy is the Philippines so rich, yet the people are so poor? How do we change these things? What’s the system that we should really fight for?” He talks about the importance of needing to get rid of this system of government corruption, foreign domination, joblessness, etc., for a society that really serves the interests of the majority. Essentially, like, a socialist future in the Philippines. So I think for me, like, that was one of the books that really helped me in my own journey to be part of the movement and be part of making change.

I also want to share a poem, if that's okay. This poem is by Philip Vera Cruz, who was a migrant farm worker that was living here in California. It really inspired me when I was still in college and is called “Profits Enslave The World.” 

I’ll read it to you:

While still across the ocean

I heard about the U.S.A.

So thrilled by wild imagination

I left home through Manila Bay

Then on my way I thought and wondered

Alone what would the future be?

I gambled parental care and love

In search for human liberty.

But beautiful bright pictures painted

Were just half of the whole story…

Reflections of great wealth and power

In the land of slavery.

Minorities in shanty towns, slums…

Disgraceful spots for all to see

In the enviable Garden of Eden,

Land of affluence and poverty.

Since then I was a hungry stray dog,

Too busy to keep myself alive…

It seems equality and freedom

Will never be where billionaires thrive!

A lust for power causes oppression

To rob the poor in senseless greed;

The wealthy few’s excessive profits

Tend to enslave the world in need.

Thanks for reading! Let me know if you have a favorite Asian American history story to share, I'm all ears :). If you enjoy these stories and would like to support our work, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Until next time!