Juan Ponce Enrile, martial law supervisor, dies at 101

By Norman P. Aquino, Special Reports Editor and Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio, Reporter

JUAN VALENTIN F. PONCE ENRILE, SR., who helped overthrow the late Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos, Sr. in 1986 after serving as his martial law administrator, has died. He was 101.

Mr. Enrile died at his residence on Thursday at 4:21 p.m., his daughter Katrina Ponce Enrile said in a Facebook post, adding he passed “surrounded by our family in the comfort of our home.”

“It was his heartfelt wish to take his final rest at home, with his family by his side,” she said.

The Harvard Law School-educated lawyer was a high-profile and enduring figure whose nearly six-decade government career left a footprint across seven administrations, serving in cabinet posts and the legislature.

He was admitted to an undisclosed hospital earlier this week for pneumonia and treated in the intensive care unit. Senator Jose “Jinggoy” P. Estrada, who broke the news during Tuesday’s plenary session, earlier said he was told Mr. Enrile had “slim chances” of surviving.

On Wednesday, Ms. Enrile said doctors were giving him the “best possible treatment and attention.”

“His passing marks the close of a chapter in our nation’s history,” President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. said in a Facebook post. “But the mark he leaves behind in law, in governance, and in the hearts of those he served will never be forgotten.”

Mr. Enrile played a central role during one of the Philippines’ most turbulent periods and he helped shape national policy as the country reeled with the aftermath of martial law.

“Mr. Enrile is an icon in defense policy and strategy, and played a foundational role in building the modern Department of National Defense,” the agency said in a statement.

As defense minister under the elder Marcos, Mr. Enrile helped oversee the administration of martial rule from 1972 to 1981, a period marked by allegations of widespread human rights abuses. He helped topple Mr. Marcos and force him into US exile in a 1986 coup that put Corazon C. Aquino, the late President Benigno S.C. Aquino III’s mother, in power. He was jailed for rebellion and released for insufficient evidence at least twice in the late 1980s and in 2001 under former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

“The decision I made that day was the only path available to me to free myself safely from the Marcos regime that I served for twenty years,” according to his 2012 memoir. “My pent-up rage that grew over the years reached its limit.”

“It had to explode and take its toll. I had no more choice.”

MARCOS CONNECTION

Mr. Enrile, whose career spanned seven presidencies from the late Marcos to the administration of his son and namesake, was born out of wedlock in the northern Philippine province of Cagayan on Feb. 14, 1924, to Petra Furagganan, who bartered fish for a living, and lawyer-politician Alfonso Ponce Enrile, according to his memoir. At age 21, he went to Manila and reunited with his real father, who helped him finish his studies.

Mr. Enrile graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of the Philippines in 1953 and earned his Master of Laws degree from Harvard two years later, specializing in international tax law.

In his memoir, he wrote that he helped the elder Marcos become the Nacionalista Party’s presidential candidate for 1965, and in his campaign and eventual victory. He later appointed Mr. Enrile as acting Finance secretary, justice chief and finally, Defense secretary in 1970.

“I promised Senate President Marcos that I would help him in his desire to run for the presidency of the country in whatever way I could. He asked if it would be all right for him to call me now and then for advice. ‘Of course, you may call me anytime,’ I assured him,” according to his memoir.

In 2013, Mr. Enrile was embroiled in a kickback scheme that allegedly benefited at least 120 sitting and former legislators. He was accused of pocketing P172.8 million of congressional funds from 2004 to 2010, a charge that he denied.

Before his incarceration in 2014, Mr. Enrile served as Senate President from 2008 to 2013. In May 2012, he oversaw the impeachment trial and conviction of the country’s former chief justice on corruption charges. He quit as Senate President in June 2013 after nine of Mr. Aquino’s hand-picked candidates won Senate seats in the midterm elections against three from the opposition.

His quitting also came amid allegations by some fellow lawmakers that he had committed improprieties, including giving cash gifts to favored senators using the Legislature’s savings. Mr. Enrile denied all the charges.

In October this year, he and his longtime aide were acquitted of 15 graft charges after a six-year trial linked to the multibillion-peso pork barrel scandal. Mr. Enrile appeared via teleconference from a hospital, where he was seen receiving oxygen support.

‘ICON IN THE PANTHEON OF PHILIPPINE HISTORY’

In 2022, Mr. Enrile was appointed as chief presidential legal counsel by the younger Marcos after winning the presidency in the same year.

He was seen as a capable lawyer in his own right, having practiced for 12 years as a partner at a firm he co-founded and taught law at Far Eastern University’s College of Law from 1956 to 1964, according to his Senate biography.

On Mr. Enrile’s 100th birthday, the younger Marcos hosted a luncheon in his honor, where he called him an “icon in the pantheon of Philippine history,” adding that “to have him in my corner allows me to sleep better at night.”

As senator, Mr. Enrile focused on fiscal policy and authored the 1997 Comprehensive Tax Reform Law, which introduced broad changes in taxation. His measure exempted overseas workers from paying Philippine income tax on earnings abroad and granted capital gains tax exemptions to homeowners who invest their proceedings.

“We find comfort in knowing that the legacy of Manong Johnny will live on, etched within the walls of the Senate and his service to the nation will forever be in the hearts of many Filipinos,” Senate President Vicente “Tito” C. Sotto III said in a statement, referring to Mr. Enrile by his nickname.

During his tenure as Senate President, Mr. Enrile oversaw the passage of 711 bills, 42 of which became laws, including the Reproductive Health Act, the Sin Tax Law and the revised military modernization program. He also steered passage of the Anti-Enforced Disappearance Act and the Human Rights Victims Reparation Law, measures shaped by the experiences of the elder Marcos’ administration.

“Enrile counts himself among those who were mesmerized by Marcosian dreams of greatness,” Nelson Navarro, editor of Mr. Enrile’s memoir, said in the book’s introduction. “Undoubtedly, history’s final judgment of Juan Ponce Enrile lies in the future.