Is Enrile making Cayetano pay for the 'sins' of his father?

There is a long history behind the word war between Senator Alan Peter Cayetano and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile (JPE), one that dates back to the complex relationship between Enrile and his former law partner and Cayetano's father, Rene Cayetano, according to a former aide of both law partners.  

In an essay by mining executive JB Baylon published in Rappler, he describes how he felt “some degree of pain as I watch [the Enrile-Cayetano dispute]. I was a witness to the relationship that is now unraveling.”  

Baylon was a young assistant of both JPE and the late Cayetano who were partners at the law firm Pecabar (Ponce Enrile Cayetano Bautista and Reyes), and colleagues in the '80s Nacionalista Party that endeavored to strengthen Enrile's political support back in the day.  

Baylon details that the current enmity between Alan Peter Cayetano and JPE has its roots when Cayetano's father became former President Ramos's Presidential Legal Counsel.  

Writes Baylon: “And then [Rene] Cayetano accepted the post of Presidential Legal Counsel under Ramos. I am sure Cayetano sought Enrile's approval for this; that approval may have been grudgingly given but I am sure it was given nonetheless. But the move wittingly or unwittingly changed the trajectory of Cayetano’s political career – out of the 'magnetic field' of Enrile and into its own path.”  

Is the son then paying for the sins of the father? The highly personal attacks during an exchange at the Senate does move out of immediate issues and into the territory of old debts.  

Listen: "Let's call a spade a spade, bakit ba kayo [Enrile] inis at galit sa akin personally?" asked Senator Cayetano bluntly last Wednesday at his privilege speech. He speculated it was because he was a critic of former President Gloria Arroyo, an Enrile ally.  

In a startling response, Enrile stood up and bared a P37 million debt allegedly incurred by Cayetano's father, the late Senator Rene Cayetano, Enrile's former Pecabar partner. "Tungkol sa iyong yumaong ama,” said JPE to Cayetano. “Ang masasabi ko lang nandito po hanggang ngayon hindi niya nababayaran na utang niya na ginastos niya sa opisina namin na itinayo ko para merong siyang pakain sa pamilya niya, P37 million na hanggang ngayon ay hindi namin sinisingil alang-alang lang sa pagsama-sama namin."   

An excerpt of their exchange further goes:  

Cayetano: Pinapakita ko... sa inyo Mr. President, na may utang na loob din kayo, pero never ko naman siningil. Enrile: Anong utang na loob ko sa inyo? Cayetano: Hindi ho ba na pinagsilbihan kayo nang maganda [ng tatay ko]? Sen. Franklin Drilon moved to suspend session to end the heated exchange. And during the session break, Enrile's blood pressure was found to have risen to 180/100, which required him to be given oxygen.  

Baylon analyzes this as all part of the fallout between JPE and Cayetano's father, long-delayed as it is, currently being brought to fore by a tactical power play at the Senate and the atmosphere of the election season: “What happened to Cayetano when he became Ramos' presidential legal counsel is [that]... a bond broke between him and his erstwhile patron, allowing him to be more of his own man.”  

As the Senate brouhaha deepens, Baylon further muses that these bones of contention may well remain unresolved because of Enrile's historical inability (he also cites how former UP president Edgardo Angara and JPE's relationship “turned sour one day”) to gracefully appreciate how those he has nurtured have often come into their own success.  

He concludes: “... I have always wondered whether [JPE's] unquestioned brilliance has made him unable to accept that his own 'protégés' could grow up and be their own men.” – Karl R. De Mesa/HS, GMA News