By Joel B. Belinan
In this country, changing political alliances is very easy, not only among politicians but also among the people in general. This perhaps is one of the reasons why our country continues to be one of the basket cases in Asia. Look at the political intramurals they just had at the House of Representatives relative to the speakership. But how is this related to my topic now? We have this tendency to easily change color like changing clothes but are very slow, if at all, to undertake the most needed changes. Best example is the amendment of our present constitution that since the time of President Fidel V. Ramos had already been pointed out to have many flaws. Moves had been initiated for the necessary changes but had been thwarted by reactionary forces led by the Catholic Church and traditional politicians. Presidents Estrada, Arroyo and even Duterte (except Pnoy for obvious reasons) attempted to push for charter change but to no avail.
That same attitude is sure to be the main obstacle to our advocacy for the return of Maharlika, our pre-colonial name. Nonetheless, no struggle is ever easy for a noble endeavor.
I got some feedback on my column on this topic asking why is it very hard to find the name or even term Maharlika in history books? Fortunately, this guy is an acquaintance and we had a casual talk at the park. I told him bluntly that it would be next to impossible to find anything about Maharlika in common libraries or even museums. It should be noted that when the Spaniards colonized most of this country (the Muslims in Mindanao and the Igorots in the Cordillera were not colonized), any literature pertaining to pre-colonial history had been erased. For how could they have enslaved our people without erasing our identity and civilization before their arrival?
If we are to compute the 338 years that we were subjugated by the Spaniards and another half century under the Americans in terms of generations we would be looking at 16 generations before we got our so called independence on July 4, 1946. This explains why our people are even more familiar with the Americans and Spaniards than our South East Asian neighbors. In addition to this is our geographic location being in the middle of the sea without any land connection with our neighbors, unlike Malaysia which has common borders with Indonesia, Borneo and even Thailand. In turn, Thailand has common borders with Burma, Vietnam, and Cambodia.
Back during the hard lockdown last March 16 to April 30 when it was really hard to find something to do in the house, I spent hours and hours browsing the internet and watching movies seldom seen in You Tube or the regular movie channels. I watched historical movies on Korea, Japan, China and even Thailand with settings prior to the 12th century that had some references to our country. For example, a Japanese trader frequented a big Island they referred to as Luzong and where they could easily buy gold, tobacco and jars that they brought back to Japan.
In another movie there was a scene where a Japanese lady of noble origin who had been travelling with a Japanese trader told a well-known Samurai, “mahal kita.” When prodded by the Samurai what she meant, she said that in a group of Islands called Maharlika where many small tribes lived, the phrase meant “I love you.”
Thus, while its hard to find what we are looking for right here in our country, we might be able to find more from our Asian neighbors. We should remember the fact that China, Korea and Japan have had at least continuous chains of government.
The Good thing is that more and more historians and anthropologists are taking an interest on the matter. The first official record in the timeline of our advocacy for the return of Maharlika as the official name of our country was in 1978 when then former senator but at that time an assembly man, Eddie Elarde. That year he filed at the Batasang Pambansa Parliamentary Bill 195 seeking for the change of our country’s name from Philippines to Maharlika. The bill did not see the light at the end of the tunnel as it was defeated at the plenary. Elarde’s bill did not just come out of the blue but was actually inspired by a discourse of Indian Philosopher Prabhat Rainjan Sarkar who said that our country long before the arrival of the Spaniards was called Maharlika, meaning Small but Great in spirit. Sarkar who is now considered the Greatest Philosopher of the 20th century also propounded the Progressive Utilization Theory (PROUT), a socioeconomic theory, and the Neo-Humanism Philosophy, happened to be the guru of the late Sen. Elarde. Unfortunately, Elarde who was a broadcaster passed away last month.
Sen. Elarde’s effort to make Maharlika our country’s official name did not catch fire until after 40 years when President Duterte came to power. As expected, the proposal was immediately met with all sorts of negative reactions specially the very sectors that emanated from colonial impositions like religion. And, yes, also from the majority of our people who cannot appreciate it due to lack of immediate tangible benefits to them like the P500 or P1000 that politicians distribute during elections.
Unlike many of our neighboring countries who were able to go back to their countries’ native names, we are stuck with our country’s colonial name and, worst, a name in honor of a person who was and is not even honored by his own people.
The following are some of the Asian countries that were able to return to their original names: Siam is now Thailand, Kampuchea is now Cambodia, French Indochina is now Vietnam, Burma is now Miyanmar, East Pakistan is now Bangladesh, Ceylon is now Sri Lanka, Dutch East Indies is now Indonesia, East Timor is now Timor Leste, and many more in other regions who after gaining their independence from their colonial masters chose to return to their native names instead of retaining the names given by their colonial masters.
Before going further I would like to clarify that our group, the Ang Katipunan ng mga Samahang Maharlika (Ang Kasama), is not in anyway connected or related to a group floating their name as Maharlika with former Bongbong Marcos as their patron. Obviously, the group wants to use the name for the 2022 election agenda of the namesake and son of the former dictator who had been aiming for the presidency. Furthermore, let it be on record that while indeed the late President Marcos did not oppose the bill of the late Sen. Elarde in 1978, and in fact even made a fictitious movie portraying him as the supposed most bemedalled guerilla leader during the second World War naming his guerilla unit Maharlika, we are aware that such were just creations of his imagination.
Our group’s advocacy is based on a concrete historical and legitimate claim with the aim to cut once and for all the negative effects of our colonial past.
Let us look at the situations of our neighbors who changed their names by returning to their original names and cut the curse of slavery from their former colonial masters. Those countries are leaving us far behind in economic development. Vietnam for one who until 1975 had been fighting hundreds if not thousands of years of war with the Chinese, then the Mongols, then the French, then the Japanese and then the French again, and then ultimately the Americans are now way ahead in terms of economic progress. **
