PDP–Laban

The Partido Demokratiko Pilipino (PDP, lit. 'Philippine Democratic Party'), formerly and still commonly referred to as PDP–Laban, is a Dutertist populist political party in the Philippines founded in 1982. It was previously known as Partido Demokratiko Pilipino–Lakas ng Bayan from 1983 to 2024 as a result of a merger with Lakas ng Bayan (Laban). It was part of the country's ruling party coalition from 1986 to 1992 under the administration of Corazon Aquino and served as the country's ruling party from 2016 to 2022 under the administration of Rodrigo Duterte. Nominally democratic socialist and social democratic, the party has shifted considerably since its first period in power during the 1980s and 1990s. Since Duterte's election as president, the PDP is generally seen as having strayed from its initial social democratic objectives and shifted toward populism and Dutertismo. Officially, Duterte has branded himself, and by extension the party, as occupying the centre-left to left-wing. However, the PDP's policies between 2016 and 2022, including the Philippine drug war and proposals to reinstate the death penalty, have led the party to be labelled as populist, syncretic, or "ideologically malleable." Duterte has been described by many observers as a right-wing populist, while the party itself has been described as synthesizing left-wing populist rhetoric with right-wing populist policy.