Katipunan ng Demokratikong Pilipino

This article is about the party in the Philippines. For the organization in the United States, see Union of Democratic Filipinos.

Katipunan ng Demokratikong Pilipino (KDP) is a Philippine far-right neo-nationalist and ultranationalist political party founded on August 31, 2018. It was formed by supporters of 16th President Rodrigo Duterte,^[3] including some officers affiliated with the Citizen National Guard, a nationalist, anti-communist and anti-islamic political advocacy group, including party chairman and former Department of Education undersecretary Butch Valdes [ceb], President Ramon Pedrosa, Executive Vice President Nur-Ana Sahidulla, and Dr. Ricardo Fulgencio IV.^[4] The party had fielded former Lieutenant General Antonio Parlade Jr. in the 2022 presidential election, which he was disallowed to run by COMELEC.^[5]

Katipunan ng Demokratikong Pilipino
President	Carlos Enrique G. Valdes III
Secretary-General	Maria Catherine Suba
Founder	Antonio 'Butch' A. S. Valdes
Founded	August 31, 2018
Headquarters	San Juan City
Ideology	Neo-nationalism Realism[1] Federalism Filipino nationalism Ultranationalism Economic nationalism Anti-communism
Political position	Far-right[2]
Slogan	Ang Partido para sa Kinabukasan. (A Party for the Future)
Seats in the Senate	0 / 24
Seats in the House of Representatives	0 / 316
Politics of the Philippines Political parties Elections

Since the passing of the KDP Founding Chairman Antonio 'Butch' Valdes in 2022, he was replaced by the KDP Vice-President Carlos Enrique Gomez Valdes III as the new head of the national political party KDP.

The KDP is unrelated to the similarly named Katipunan ng mga Demokratikong Pilipino (Union of Democratic Filipinos), a United States–based Marxist–Leninist–Maoist group which had opposed the Ferdinand Marcos regime during the 1970s and 1980s.^[6][7]

Political positions

KDP has been described as "ultra-right".^[8] KDP's electoral agenda for the 2019 elections were to "stop electoral fraud" by cancelling Smartmatic's contract with the Commission on Elections and reforming the electoral system, to prosecute those involved in the Dengvaxia controversy, and to reduce electrical bills by repealing the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) of 2001.^[9] Economic nationalism figures significantly in the party platform and covers shifting from a service economy to an agro-industrialized producer economy, food self-sufficiency and the integration of the Philippines into the Belt and Road Initiative.^[10] In addition, the party advocates a nonaligned,^[10] realist approach to foreign-policymaking,^[1] as well as federalism.^[10]

False claims on the Marcoses' stolen wealth

KDP's Facebook page posted false information regarding the Marcos family's stolen wealth. The group posted a video that made multiple false claims about Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos's Swiss bank accounts. The video also made misleading claims about the source of the Marcos's wealth.^[11] A fact check of the video's false claims said that, in fact, the Supreme Court ruled in 2003 that the assets in question were ill-gotten wealth or stolen money.^[11] The video received 28,000 interactions on KDP's Facebook page. Excerpts of KDP's incorrect video were shared by a Tiktok user in 2021 and generated 95,000 interactions and almost 876,000 views.^[11]

Researchers noted that after Bongbong Marcos announced his candidacy for the presidency, claims praising his father, President Ferdinand Marcos Sr., and his authoritarian regime increased significantly.^[12]

Candidates for the 2019 general election

Senatorial slate

• Toti Casiño
• Glenn Chong
• Larry Gadon (guest candidate from Kilusang Bagong Lipunan and Lakas–CMD)
• R. J. Javellana [ceb]
• Nur-Ana Sahidulla
• Butch Valdes [ceb]

Local officials

• Ariel Magcalas - former mayor of Santa Cruz, Laguna (2007–2010)
• Laarni Malibiran - vice mayor of Santa Cruz, Laguna (2019–present)

Electoral performance

Presidential and vice presidential elections

Year	Presidential election			Vice presidential election
	Candidate	Vote share	Result	Candidate	Vote share	Result
2022	Antonio Parlade Jr.[n 1]	N/A	Bongbong Marcos (PFP)	None		Sara Duterte (Lakas–CMD)

Legislative elections

Congress of the Philippines
House of Representatives			Senate
Year	Seats won	Result	Year	Seats won	Ticket	Result
2019	0 / 304	PDP–Laban plurality	2019	0 / 12	Katipunan ng Demokratikong Pilipino	Hugpong ng Pagbabago win 9/12 seats
2022	Did not participate	PDP–Laban plurality	2022	Did not participate[n 2]		UniTeam win 6/12 seats

1. Parlade Jr. was disqualified from the presidential race.
2. Katipunan ng Demokratikong Pilipino supported Larry Gadon, RJ Javellana, Rey Valeros and Nur-Ana Sahidulla's senatorial bid who all ran under other political parties or as independent candidates.