Who is Juan Ponce Enrile?

Juan Ponce Enrile died on Thursday at the age of 101 after being in the intensive care unit for pneumonia. 

Enrile served in the Philippine government for more than 50 years after holding various posts since the administration of Ferdinand Marcos Sr. until the present leadership of the latter’s son and namesake, Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. 

Enrile was born on February 14, 1924, to Alfonso Ponce Enrile and Petra Furagganan in Gonzaga, Cagayan. 

In his memoir, Enrile shared that he grew up in poverty: “My mother knew the family had no money for education. Yet that did not deter her. She approached an unmarried female teacher in our town, who was her distant cousin, to take me in as her houseboy in exchange for my education”.

He worked as a cook and housekeeper for his aunt Consorcia Calasan and her Tita Calantas, who are both teachers, when he was in elementary school. 

Despite the poverty, Enrile was able to pursue his education with distinction. He graduated cum laude from the Ateneo de Manila University with an associate in arts degree in 1949.

Enrile then attended the University of the Philippines to pursue bachelors of laws where he also graduated cum laude and class salutatorian in 1953. 

He then attended Harvard Law School in the US for his master of laws degree with a specialized training in international taxation. He graduated in 1955. 

Enrile had a private law practice until 1966 and served as a law professor in Far Eastern University from 1955 to 1962. 

Government and legislature 

A senior partner in law offices that bore his name and a law professor at the Far Eastern University, Enrile entered the government in 1966 when then-President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. appointed him finance undersecretary and later acting secretary of the Department of Finance.

He was also named concurrent acting chairman of the Monetary Board and concurrent acting head of the Insurance Commission. Enrile was also named acting commissioner at the Commission of Customs.

Enrile was then appointed Secretary of Justice in 1968 and became the concurrent chairman of the Board of Pardons and Parole.

In 1970, he was appointed Secretary of National Defense. 

Enrile resigned in 1971 to run for senator. He was appointed back to the helm of the defense department in 1972 and was the defense secretary when Marcos Sr. declared Martial Law in September that year.

He would become Marcos Sr.'s minister of defense until 1986, when he and then Armed Forces Vice Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Fidel Ramos withdrew support from the administration.

The EDSA Revolution would then depose Marcos Sr. and install Corazon "Cory" Aquino as President. 

Enrile as defense minister would serve in the Cory Aquino Cabinet until November 1986.

His legislative career began in the Interim Batasan Pambansa, where he represented Region 2 (Cagayan Valley) from 1978 to 1984, followed by a term as the assemblyman for Cagayan province until 1986.

His long tenure in the Senate included two non-consecutive periods: first from 1987 to 1992, and then a longer stretch starting in 1995. He continuously held a Senate seat from 2004 until 2016, covering the 2004-2010 and 2010-2016 terms.

Enrile also served as Senate President, a position he held from 2008 to 2010 and again from 2010 to 2013. But he stepped down in 2013 due to a controversy surrounding the Senate's funds. 

In 2022, Marcos Jr. appointed Enrile, who was then 98, as chief presidential legal counsel. His last post before his passing. 

The younger Marcos said that he had full trust in Enrile's abilities and experience as a public servant. 

Pork barrel controversy, acquittal

In 2014, Enrile was charged with plunder before the Sandiganbayan in connection with the misuse of pork barrel funds

He surrendered in Camp Crame and spent a little over a year under hospital arrest at the Philippine National Police General Hospital. 

Enrile was released on bail in 2015.

More than 10 years later, on October 4, 2024, the Sandiganbayan Third Division found Enrile, Reyes, and Napoles not guilty in the plunder case, finding that the state prosecutors failed to prove their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

On Oct. 24, 2025, Enrile attended online the promulgation of his graft cases by the Sandiganbayan from the hospital where, according to his daughter Katrina, he was confined to manage his pneumonia.

The Sandiganbayan Special Third Division then acquitted Enrile, his former chief-of-staff Jessica "Gigi" Reyes, and Janet Napoles of 15 counts of graft in connection with the alleged misuse of his priority development assistance fund when he was still a senator.

''I thank the Lord foremost for this vindication and also the Honorable Justices of the Sandiganbayan who carefully studied the evidence and tried the case with fairness and discernment,'' Enrile said. —with information from GMA Integrated News Research/NB, GMA Integrated News