Ex-senator cheers name-change revival

‘UNITED ISLANDS OF MAHARLIKA’

FORMER senator Eddie Ilarde, founding president and chairman of the Maharlika Movement for National Transformation, on Thursday lauded President Rodrigo Duterte for endorsing the long-standing proposal to change the country’s name to “Maharlika.”

In a resolution, the movement stated: “We commend President Rody Duterte for his courage and vision in favoring the renaming of the Philippines to Maharlika. ‘Maharlika’ is a divine name and a spiritual mantra, carried by the noble and revered counselors of the Datus and Rajahs of the Sulu Sultanate before the arrival of the Western colonialists.”

Ilarde, in a statement, bared his preferred name for the Philippines: the “United Islands of Maharlika.”

“President Duterte shall be loved and admired by succeeding generations in the ‘ United Islands of Maharlika’ for being the nation’s leader who guided our people to renascence and dignity in the eyes of the world,” Ilarde said.

Addressing critics of the name, the former senator traced the etymology of Maharlika: “Maha, a Sanskrit word in the Vedas of the ancient Aryans of the Indus valley, which means ‘ noble and great’ as in Mahatma ( a great soul), Taj Mahal,

Mahabharata ( historical epic), Mahalokha ( the highest heaven),

mahal kita ( I love you), which are words of endearment, etc.; in the Taitteria Upanishad, ‘ Maha’ means God Himself; ‘ likha’ is our native word, which means create, make, cause, conceive, design; ‘ Maharlika,’ therefore, means ‘ nobly created.’”

Asked what is wrong with the name “Philippines,” Ilarde explained: “We baptize our children with names of saints or reputable and distinguished people, not Lucifer or [ Adolf ] Hitler or names of ignoble persons. King Philip 2nd of Spain, the person we have been named after, was a symbol of ignominy — son of first cousins, burned alive thousands of Muslims, beheaded thousands of Protestants in Europe, married his first cousin and nieces, was excommunicated by Pope Paul 4th in 1552 for looting Rome, died of a ‘sexually transmitted disease’ ( syphilis), and when he died his body was covered with pus from foul- smelling wounds festered by hundreds of insects.”

The movement’s resolution concluded: “After centuries of carrying his name, it is time to redeem our ethos and true identity as a people emulating the other countries which changed their names and convulsed into progress and prosperity.”