Why rename the “Philippines”?
Did you know that the name “Filipinas” was almost changed some fifty years ago?
Ferdinand Marcos is truly hated by many for stealing billions of dollars from our country and for persecuting tens of thousands of Filipinos BUT he could have been a real hero. How?
He was very correct
AND
even great on his views about the wrong name of our country that was derived from a very weak and vascillating king which he tried to change.
Wait.
Is changing our country’s name enough to make him a real hero?
No, but please continue reading.
King Carlos I of Spain was a wise and strong ruler and he was very proud to have sired his son Felipe only to be terribly dissappointed later when his son grew up.
When this heir to the throne became a fledging adult, he had a bevy of pretty female friends from the Spanish royalty BUT he had a perchant for cheap prostitutes and soon enough, he was gravely infected with the venerial disease “gonorrhea”. He later became King Felipe II and was married a pretty queen but he transmitted this “clap” to his wife so she divorced him.
His administration of the Spanish kingdom was very inefficient and he almost lost his throne when several revolts in different provinces erupted, and naturally, their collection of taxes went down resulting in the difficulty of paying the wages of the Spanish bureaucracy.
The Philippine Center for Asian Studies (PCAS), a political think-tank established by Marcos and was run by a rumored CIA-trained propagandist Adrian Cristobal with his deputy, the intel expert General Jose Almonte, was brilliantly placed inside the University of the Philippines so as not to arouse any suspicion, and so PCAS presented to him this storyline of the weak king to justify the changing of our country’s name.
PCAS went on to test the reaction of the Filipinos by substituting Maharlika as the new and better name of the country, and together with this new name is the important tagline that “this Nation can be great again”. People’s reaction was electrifyingly great! This gave hope to millions who openly supported Apo Marcos. “Ang Bagong Lipunan “was born.
In 1971, to drive the name much deeper into the Filipino psyche, Marcos minions made a movie titled “Maharlika” that starred a little-known starlet Dovie Beams who was later rumored to become a lover of the dictator.
But wait… with the greatest Maharlika Ferdinand Marcos at the helm, the “royal” family to be adored and emulated was nobody else but that of Marcos.
Huh?
Ahh… Okay… Okay…
PCAS also spearheaded studies on territorial conflicts in various countries and their historical findings showed that, except for Israel, no territory was ever regained without a military component.
This study emboldened Marcos to plan on retaking Sabah to formally fortify our claim accompanied by military action.
#PhaseOne
Marcos went ahead and sent our highly-trained military officers in espionage and in covert operations starting with Operation Merdeka, so our intel operatives surreptitiously slipped into Sabah to gather information and arrange the groundwork for a revolt and subsequently,.an invasion.
#PhaseTwo
Soon enough, many Muslim youth were recruited and trained in commando warfare. Undoubtedly, they were very patriotic, wanting to serve their country as Muslims then were very proud members of our Republic. Although the Muslim community did not know the whole story, they were very optimistic that these young combatants would serve the country well.
#PhaseThreeWentPfft
Marcos could have succeeded with this planned invasion to regain Sabah but everything went wrong when the Jabidah Massacre erupted, highlighted by the exposé by a self-appointed Messiah and nutcase Ninoy Aquino in a priviledge speech at the Philippine Senate.
Some quarters have claimed that the Jabidah Massacre was a hoax but no substantial arguments have been presented.
#Synopsis
Looking back now without bringing corruption and human rights violations into the equation, had Marcos succeeded, we would have had “Maharlika” as the new name for our country, and possibly regained our disputed territory Sabah, and perhaps, Marcos could have become a real hero…
NOT a bemedalled fake hero using only friend’s affidavits to claim his exploits, but a facsimile of a hero…
Well, a mini hero nevertheless.
However, for us to emulate him and his family as our Filipino version of “royalty”?
Naah. Never.
Never any Marcos again…
🙂
Photo by Wikipedia
juliomiguel3 