Rowegie Abanto

Chief Legal Counsel and former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile. Voltaire F. Domingo, Senate PRIB/File

Chief Legal Counsel and former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile returns to the Senate as a resource person of the Committee on Constitutional Amendments and Revision of Codes during the resumption of the hybrid public hearing on legislative measures calling for a review of the provisions of the 1987 Constitution Wednesday, September 21, 2022. 

Enrile shared his views on the declaration of martial law during the time of former President Ferdinand Marcos, Sr., saying it was done to deter the rise of communism in the country. Voltaire F. Domingo, Senate PRIB

Article (news)

SENATE

RG Cruz

ABS-CBN News

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/176292294791820220921-senate-constitutional-amendments-enrile-SPRIB0522.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Chief Legal Counsel and former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile. <em>Voltaire F. Domingo, Senate PRIB/File</em></span></span></span></div><p>MANILA — With over 100 years behind him, Juan Ponce Enrile&#x27;s personal story reads much like the history of the Philippines, having been one of the country&#x27;s most consequential political figures in recent history. </p><p>Many generations of Filipinos will remember him as one of the architects of Ferdinand Marcos Sr.&#x27;s 20-year dictatorship, serving as his defense minister and martial law administrator.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;I NEVER TRUSTED ANYONE&#x27;</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>&quot;I was not the most trusted, I guess. He just trusted my judgment and probably he thought that I was skilled enough as a lawyer to be able to study things for him. And he asked me to study his powers under the Commander-in-Chief provision of the Constitution and I enlisted too in the Department of Justice to help me,&quot; Enrile once told ABS-CBN News Channel years ago.</p><p>&quot;The proclamation, I wrote it with Marcos&#x27; corrections. Yeah, I typed it. I never trusted anyone. I take the ribbon, I take the carbon, I burn it, those ribbons and those carbons including the typewritten material, I kept. He did not have anything, any copy,&quot; he said.</p><p>Enrile would later serve as one of the triggers for the end of that dark period in the country&#x27;s history, when he and then General Fidel Ramos led a bloodless revolt that toppled Marcos and installed Corazon Aquino as the country&#x27;s first female president in what was the beginning of a democratic restoration in the country.</p><p>&quot;He has sparked a revolution,&quot; Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri said of Enrile as the Senate honored him for his storied life and career back in November 2024.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;TOUGH ACT TO FOLLOW&#x27;</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>Enrile&#x27;s life after EDSA was spent in the country&#x27;s newly restored bicameral legislature that later led him to another peak in his storied career: serving as Senate president and eventually presiding officer of the only impeachment trial to have ousted an impeachable official in the country&#x27;s history.</p><p>When the Senate honored him last year, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada recalled the words of his father, former President Joseph Estrada, about Enrile&#x27;s stint as presiding officer.</p><p>&quot;My father, former President Joseph Ejercito Estrada, once said, &#x27;Juan Ponce Enrile is a tough act to follow&#x27; and he truly is. Few can match his extensive experience, sharp intellect, and significant contributions to our nation,&quot; Jinggoy said.</p><p>&quot;Sabi nga ang aking ama, &#x27;Chief Justice Corona is very fortunate than me, because the presiding officer, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, is very impartial.&#x27;&quot;</p><p>The elder Estrada had been impeached, too, but Enrile was not the presiding officer in that trial.</p><p>Enrile&#x27;s many years at the Senate would be capped with scandal, however, after he was dragged into, and subsequently charged and detained for, the Janet Lim Napoles pork barrel scandal. </p><p>It would take years, but Enrile would eventually be given temporarily liberty on account of his age, eventually acquitted from that case, coincidentally while he served as Chief Legal Counsel to President Marcos Jr.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>BEGINNINGS</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>Enrile&#x27;s storied life had humble beginnings in Cagayan province, as he would recall to ANC&#x27;s &quot;Pipol&quot; many years ago.</p><p>&quot;To recall my boyhood years, I will take a book in itself. But anyway, I grew up, I was born by the side of a river near the sea,&quot; Enrile said. </p><p>&quot;We were isolated in our village. There were only, I think, about 10 or 15 houses at the most. And to go to the town, you&#x27;ll spend one day walking.&quot;</p><p>&quot;I was contented with just being a fisherman or an ordinary person. But, you know, we sometimes think that we are in control of life. But I guess there&#x27;s a divine spirit somewhere,&quot; Enrile added. </p><p>&quot;I was earning 75 centavos a day, working from 6 o&#x27;clock in the morning until 6 o&#x27;clock in the afternoon. The minimum wage at that time was 1 peso, by the way.&quot;</p><p>He spoke of what motivated him to take up law.</p><p>&quot;Four boys in that school, Cagayan Valley Institute, where I was enjoying a scholarship privilege to be able to study, ambushed me. I filed a case against them. But they were affluent. They got all the lawyers in the town. I did not have any lawyer,&quot; Enrile said. </p><p>&quot;And the worst part is I was expelled from the school.&quot;</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;WE FINISH IT TOGETHER&#x27;</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>Enrile&#x27;s grit, determination, and legal acumen eventually got the attention of the elder Marcos.</p><p>&quot;I learned a lot from him. But you see, somehow, our mental faculties connected with each other,&quot; Enrile said.</p><p>That was the beginning of his stint in government, one that would last for many years in various positions across different administrations and time periods.</p><p>&quot;And this was already in the middle of, past the middle of January 1966. I entered his office and then he whispered something to his aide and then all of a sudden, Mrs. Marcos and Christina came out with the other blue ladies and then he asked me to raise my right hand and gave me a piece of paper to read my oath as Undersecretary of Finance. That&#x27;s how I entered the government. Then I agreed to stay only for one year,&quot; Enrile said. </p><p>&quot;Many times I went to Marcos to resign. The last time was July 18, 1983. And Marcos refused to let me go. He said, to quote his word, &#x27;We started this together, we finish it together.&#x27; And he said it prophetically.&quot;</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;NOW IT IS MY TIME&#x27;</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>Enrile held numerous positions in government, which included several stints as a lawmaker in both chambers of Congress, and executive positions in various state agencies and companies — stints that would take him from being a critic to a staunch ally of different presidents and administrations. </p><p>He would even be tagged in various plots to unseat former Presidents Corazon Aquino and Gloria Arroyo.</p><p>In November 2024, the Senate, where he spent a huge chunk of his life, honored Enrile, and before his former colleagues, he mused about the life he had.</p><p>&quot;I never expected that I would come back to this chamber in a wheelchair. But that is the problem of all of us. We all suffer from the same disease, you and I, and that disease is time. It comes sooner or later. Now it is my time,&quot; Enrile said.</p><p>&quot;But you are living at a time perhaps much more difficult and much more challenging than the time I have lived with. I went to war during the war. I participated in the drama that we have had in this chamber. I have been jailed several times, but I survived, and that is why I am here today. That is the essence of our struggle: to make this country exist not for ourselves, not for anyone, but for our families and our descendants.&quot;</p><p>Enrile also had a reminder to the modern-day members of the Senate, as well as to the current generation of Filipinos.</p><p>&quot;To be in this Chamber is not something that can be taken for granted. It is an honor, a privilege, and a very heavy responsibility. You represent the people and you represent the country. You balance the lower House—you are another Chamber. Your President is number three in the hierarchy of succession,&quot; he said.</p><p>&quot;We are now in charge of this country and this country must be handled by every generation of Filipinos. No one, no president, no Senator, no member of the House, can simply develop this country. It must be developed by the collective effort of every Filipino and every generation. It is the only country that we have, and we happen to be here.&quot;</p>

<p>With over 100 years behind him, Juan Ponce Enrile's personal story reads much like the history of the Philippines, having been one of the country's most consequential political figures in recent history.</p>

With over 100 years behind him, Juan Ponce Enrile's personal story reads much like the history of the Philippines, having been one of the country's most consequential political figures in recent history.

Juan Ponce Enrile's life and legacy, in his own words

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Juan Ponce Enrile's life and legacy, in his own words

RG Cruz,

ABS-CBN News

Published Nov 13, 2025 05:55 PM PHT

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