THE term “maharlika” appeared in our American colonial social science/history education as one “class” — an inaccuracy — of precolonial Filipino society. Let me explain how and why.

During the Spanish era, the colonial ideology that emphasized the backwardness of the Filipinos and the Philippines to push and justify the dual colonial agenda of Spanish conquest and Christianization was advanced through the writing and teaching of history.

Filipino nationalism in the 19th century spearheaded by Jose Rizal and others involved in the so-called Propaganda Movement (i.e., T.H. Pardo de Tavera, Pedro Paterno, Isabelo de los Reyes, etc.) edified the umbrella of nationalist historiography to combat colonial ideology and historiography. Nationalist historiography, according to Japanese scholar Setsuho Ikehata, endeavored to expose the fallaciousness and illegitimacy of colonial ideology and historiography since the time of Rizal.

In the years after the onset of nationalist historiography in the 19th century, more and more Filipino and foreign scholars undertook research, particularly in the various archives in Spain, Mexico and even the United States, to paint a more accurate image of the Filipino unfettered by the Spanish colonialist agenda.

Aware of colonial ideology that tainted the accounts of the Spanish/European sources, modern scholars have been hard at work to uncover a more accurate image of the Filipino precolonial social structure. Thus, they wrote extensively about the datu-maginoo, the maharlika-timawa and the alipin-oripun. These works were eagerly digested by Filipino schoolchildren who flocked to the mass education system instituted by the American colonial regime.

(NB: the Americans were eager to assist in the unraveling of the Spanish colonial ideology and historiography to provide a flattering contrast to the benevolence of US colonial rule in the Philippines.)

It would seem that Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr., born on Sept. 11, 1917 and reared at the height of the American colonial education system, picked up on the historical maharlika because he named his fictitious World War 2 guerrilla unit, “Ang Mga Maharlika.” Historian Alfred McCoy writes that the US Army denied the request of Marcos and his men from Ang Mga Maharlika for recognition and award as World War 2 guerrillas. McCoy adds that when Marcos appealed the decision, Guerrilla Affairs wrote a damning report in March 1948 concluding that “no such unit ever existed” and found the claim to be “fraudulent” and a “malicious criminal act.”

It would be logical to surmise that Marcos Sr. got the idea for Ang Mga Maharlika after he was included by then-vice president Elpidio Quirino, his fellow Ilocano political patron, in a team sent by the Philippines to the US to negotiate for World War 2 veterans back pay and benefits. I suspect that Marcos Sr. submitted claims for the recognition of Ang Mga Maharlika for the financial rewards accruing to such an acknowledgment, and for the social and political capital it would generate for the advancement of his personal ambitions beginning with the 1949 elections.

McCoy provides an interesting analysis of Marcos Sr.’s mythmaking project that “wove the slender threads of his war record into a heroic tapestry that would later serve as an ideological backdrop for authoritarian rule.” The use of Maharlika as the name of his fictional guerrilla unit, thus, appears to be part of Marcos’ elaborate and grand plan from the very beginning to leverage his wartime exploits, not just for a stab at the presidency but more importantly for authoritarian rule. Remember that Marcos vowed to his congressional constituents in 1949 to deliver an Ilocano president within 20 years. Moreover, according to McCoy:

“Underlying the legal justification for martial rule was the myth of Marcos as a reincarnation of ancient Malay warriors who fought against colonial conquest… Just as ancient warriors proved their prowess by taking heads, so Marcos, in a deft elision of historical epochs, showed his leadership by winning medals in World War 2.”

Of course, just as Ang Mga Maharlika was found to be fictitious, many of Marcos’ wartime medals were also proven to be fake as well.

In the middle of Marcos’ ambition and myth-making is the historical maharlika, a precolonial “birthright aristocracy” who rendered military service. The 16th-century Franciscan friar Juan de Plasencia describes the precolonial maharlika as warriors who accompany their captain (the datu? – VY) “abroad at his own expense whenever he calls and wherever he goes, rows his boat not as a galley slave but as a comrade-at-arms, and receives his share of the spoils afterwards.”

Clearly, the context of the maharlika lies with the maritime/ entrepot trade orientation of the precolonial economy and society, especially among the coastal communities in the archipelago. Trade that produces real or imaginary grievances by one of the parties inevitably results in raiding missions or pangayaw, calling the maharlika into action to recompense the aggrieved party.

To be continued