The Integrated Civilian Home Defense Forces, also called the Civilian Home Defense Force and commonly referred to by its

acronym An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial Letter (alphabet), letter of each wor ...

CHDF, was an irregular

paramilitary A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934. Overview Though a paramilitary is, by definiti ...

force supervised and deployed by the heads of the

local government in the Philippines In the Philippines, local government is divided into three levels: provinces and independent cities, component cities and municipalities, and barangays, all of which are collectively known as local government units (LGUs). In some areas, abo ...

—

provincial Provincial may refer to: Government & Administration * Provincial capitals, an administrative sub-national capital of a country * Provincial city (disambiguation) * Provincial minister (disambiguation) * Provincial Secretary, a position in Canad ...

governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

and

municipal A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the gov ...

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

s. The CHDF was active during the 1970s, and was officially disbanded in 1986 after the

People Power Revolution The People Power Revolution, also known as the EDSA Revolution or the February Revolution, were a series of popular Demonstration (people), demonstrations in the Philippines, mostly in Metro Manila, from February 22 to 25, 1986. There was a ...

. However, the creation of the

Citizen Armed Force Geographical Unit The Citizen Armed Force Geographical Unit,https://militiasdb.sowi.uni-mannheim.de/militias-public/pgag/148/evidence/ variously called Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit, Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit and commonly referred to by its ...

in 1987 provided the opportunity for CHDF members to once again perform their former duties.

Creation

The

Philippine Constabulary The Philippine Constabulary (PC; , ''HPP''; ) was a gendarmerie-type military police force of the Philippines from 1901 to 1991, and the predecessor to the Philippine National Police. It was created by the Insular Government, American occupat ...

recruited, organized and equipped official civilian

militia A militia ( ) is a military or paramilitary force that comprises civilian members, as opposed to a professional standing army of regular, full-time military personnel. Militias may be raised in times of need to support regular troops or se ...

during the

Hukbalahap Rebellion The Hukbalahap rebellion was a rebellion staged in the Philippines by former Hukbalahap or ''Hukbong Bayan Laban sa Hapon'' () soldiers against the Philippine government. It started in 1946 after the independence of the Philippines from the Unit ...

after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. After the

Hukbalahap The Hukbong Bayan Laban sa Hapon (), better known by the acronym Hukbalahap, was a Filipino communist guerrilla movement formed by the farmers of Central Luzon. They were originally formed to fight the Japanese, but extended their fight int ...

were effectively suppressed in 1956, these militia units were organized into "

Barrio ''Barrio'' () is a Spanish language, Spanish word that means "Quarter (urban subdivision), quarter" or "neighborhood". In the modern Spanish language, it is generally defined as each area of a city delimited by functional (e.g. residential, comm ...

Self-Defense Units". In 1972,

Ferdinand E. Marcos Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. (September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino lawyer, politician, dictator, and kleptocrat who served as the tenth president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled the country under ...

declared

martial law in the Philippines Martial law in the Philippines () refers to the various historical instances in which the Philippine head of state placed all or part of the country under military control—most prominently during the administration of Ferdinand Marcos, bu ...

. One of the terms of the 1973 martial law-era Philippine Constitution was the establishment of the "Self-Defense Forces" to help combat the Islamic insurgency in

Mindanao Mindanao ( ) is the List of islands of the Philippines, second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and List of islands by population, seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the ...

and later the Communist insurgency. In 1977, Marcos issued Presidential Decree No. 1016, formally establishing the Integrated Civilian Home Defense Forces for the purpose of maintenance of peace and order. At its inception, the CHDF numbered 73,000 men, and became a notorious

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

violator. In July 1987,

Corazon Aquino María Corazón "Cory" Sumulong Cojuangco-Aquino (; January 25, 1933 – August 1, 2009) was a Filipino politician who served as the 11th president of the Philippines and the first woman president in the country, from Presidency of Corazon ...

issued Executive Order 275, dissolving the CHDF and other paramilitary units. However, that same month she issued Executive Order 264, establishing the

on the advice of then-Defense Secretary

Fidel V. Ramos Fidel Valdez Ramos (; March 18, 1928 – July 31, 2022), popularly known as FVR, was a Filipino general and politician who served as the 12th president of the Philippines from 1992 to 1998. He was the only career military officer to reached ...

. Former members, between 25%-70%, of the disbanded CHDF were then integrated into the CAFGU.

Organization

Over-all organization, training and equipment was provided by the

Department of National Defense A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

, while screening and appointment of actual members was carried out by the military provincial commander upon the recommendation of the local government heads and the Chief of the

. Deployment and utilization of the CHDF troops fell under the supervision of the provincial governor, city and municipal mayors, who coordinated with military and

Integrated National Police The Integrated National Police (INP) ( Filipino: ''Pinagsamang Pulisyáng Pambansà'', ''PPP''; Spanish: ''Policía Nacional Conjunta'', ''PNC'') was the municipal police force for the cities and large towns of the Republic of the Philippine ...

units in areas under the jurisdiction of the local government. In practice, the CHDF were under the control of the city and municipal mayors.

In media

The antagonists in

Lav Diaz Lavrente Indico Diaz (born December 30, 1958) is a Filipino independent filmmaker and former film critic. He is frequently known as one of the key members of the slow cinema movement, and has made several of the longest narrative films on reco ...

' 2018 film ''

Season of the Devil ''Season of the Devil'' ( is a 2018 Filipino musical film directed by Lav Diaz. It was selected to compete for the Golden Bear in the main competition section at the 68th Berlin International Film Festival. It won the Grand Jury Prize for Film ...

'' are specifically identified as members of the martial law era Civilian Home Defense Forces, and are responsible for various atrocities in the Barrio of Ginto. The conflict between the CHDF and rebels in the town of

Glan, Sarangani Glan, officially the Municipality of Glan (; , Jawi: ايڠد نوڠلن; ), is a municipality in the province of Sarangani, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 109,547 people. Glan is the most populous municipalit ...

is depicted in Bryan Wong's 2019 action film ''

Bahad Bahad (, short for ''Bsis Hadrakha'' (), ''lit.'' Training base) is a military training base in the Israel Defense Forces. Each Bahad deals with a certain field, such as law enforcement or logistics. Generally, each Bahad belongs to a certain corp ...

''.

References

{{reflist Reserve and Auxiliary Units of the Philippine Military Establishments by Philippine presidential decree Military units and formations disestablished in 1987

Creation

Organization

In media

See also

References