Ilarde co-hosted on DZXL with Bobby Ledesma and Leila Benitez the noontime variety show Student Canteen, which they would continue to host when the program was brought to television in 1958.

With re-electionist President Ferdinand Marcos successfully leading the Nacionalista Party slate, Ilarde fell over 300,000 votes shy of election to the Senate.

Ilarde, along with the other members of his party's senatorial ticket, was injured in the bombing at Plaza Miranda of their final political rally.

Running under the Marcos' political party Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (or the New Society Movement), Ilarde won election to the Interim Batasang Pambansa as an Assemblyman representing Region IV (Metro Manila).

Ilarde was the founder and chairman of the Maharlika Foundation For National Transformation Inc., and the Golden Eagles Society International Inc.

[3] He also hosted radio program Kahapon Lamang that airs over DZBB (owned and operated by GMA Network Station) every Saturday from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Ilarde died on August 4, 2020, exactly three weeks shy of his 86th birthday, at the age of 85 at his home in Makati.

[5] His death came four months after his original Student Canteen female co-host, Leila Benitez-McCollum, died on April 9, 2020.