The first thing that comes to mind when I hear the word "Maharlika" is President Ferdinand Marcos Sr.'s anti-Japanese guerrilla front, which operated in the hills of Northern Luzon. The famed exploits of the Maharlika unit catapulted Marcos Sr. into Congress and eventually the presidency. Some historians and critics, however, alleged that the Maharlika unit did not exist at all but rather Marcos Sr.'s embellished story to boost his military credentials and bravery under fire to win political offices.
But the Maharlika that seems infamous in today's political intramurals is the assumed name of a Facebook vlogger based in Los Angeles in the US. Her provocative posts on social media led to a Senate inquiry regarding the alleged leakage of confidential documents from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA). This leaked document involves a pre-operation report that implicates President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and film celebrities in cocaine parties at a plush condominium in Makati City back in 2012 when he was a senator. Maharlika uploaded the sensitive document on Facebook, triggering a political maelstrom for the past weeks.
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