Captain of the Senate
being involved with a girl who often sat beside him and was attacked by some senior students armed with knives. Enrile knew arnis so he was able to defend himself. He jumped from a second floor window to escape his attackers.
The school was in chaos after the incident. JPE’s attackers were sons of school trustees and they had lawyers. Enrile had none. When the case went to court, he lost. The dean expelled him.
Enrile realized life was tougher for those without means. That made him want to pursue a career in law.
Sound of cannons
Back in Cagayan, he resumed his job at the office of the mayor who sponsored his education. One December morning, as he bought food for his boss from a sari-sari store, he noticed that the streets were almost empty. There were soldiers wearing weird hats and he heard the sound of tanks. World War II had reached the Philippines.
Enrile joined the guerrilla movement and went underground. He was captured and imprisoned by the Japanese but managed to escape during an air raid.
After the war, with only a first-year high school education, Enrile did not know what to do. His half-siblings on his father’s side, who had been trying to reach him, finally contacted him after the war. He learned they were in Santa Mesa, Manila.
After 20 years, JPE was finally going to meet his biological father. He traveled from Cagayan, but when he reached Santa Mesa, his father was not there and his siblings were fighting over what they should do with him. Most did not want him to meet their father.
Luckily, one of his siblings gave him directions to his father’s office. Juanito was a country boy, unfamiliar with the city’s ways, but he did find the building.
When he finally met his father, the older man said, “I’m sorry, son,” and hugged him. As he remembered this, Enrile took off his glasses and wiped his eyes.
Time to set sail
Enrile finished high school at St. James Malabon but to graduate, he had to get a permit from the school that expelled him, Cagayan Valley Institute. The director, Candido Valera, was almost teary-eyed as he apologized to Enrile.
Manong Johhny’s voice started to break again at this point when he said this.
It had taken great humility for the school director to apologize for expelling him. Likewise, it must have been quite difficult to forgive the man who caused him pain, but Enrile proved that it was in forgive- ness that we learned to let go of the hurt in our hearts.
After finishing high school, Enrile studied law first at the University of the Philippines then at the prestigious Harvard University in the United States.
As a lawyer, he defended Hacienda Luisita, Hawaiian Philippines, Universal Pictures, Paramount, Ayala, Philippine Airlines, National City Bank, Bank of America, Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, oil and mining companies, among others.
He would hold numerous political positions and be a major player in the historic Edsa Revolution that toppled a dictatorship. Now, he is Senate president of the Philippines.
Rivulets to roaring tide
No river or sea becomes mighty without the rivulets. What then are the little things that make Juan Ponce Enrile whole?
He liked books by Lloyd Douglas, Khalil Gibran, Shakespeare and Omar Khayyam.
JPE said he was born Aglipayan, but converted to Catholicism at age 20.
As for what makes him happy, JPE said, “I’m happy, I do not want much in life. You know, I believe one should be very moderate in life, be very moderate about his ambitions and his desires.”
He is not one to bear grudges. “I was called all kinds of names: Martial law administrator, murderer, plunderer, this and that. If you think about it, I am the most distasteful, distrusted and despicable human being in this country. But I do not harbor any ill will toward anybody.”
But Manong Johnny did admit to one thing: “I just can’t tolerate stupid people.”
Be happy
As for his plans and wishes, he said, “I want the country to be happy. How will I do it? Uplift the life of the people. How do I do that? Well, of course, the first thing is to educate them, not to become geniuses, but to be able to earn a living…. I’ll have to look at the economic laws … change the whole thing, remove all the restrictions for people to come here to do business. I do not believe in restrictions for they only favor certain people to the detriment of the masses… That’s why I said, ‘ Gusto ko, happy ka! (I want you to be happy!)’”
A lot of things have happened in Manong Johnny’s life. How we choose to deal with the huge waves that life brings us will determine how our ship sails in the sea of life. Enrile has proved to us that, whether rich or poor, you are the captain of your soul and the master of your fate.
“No one can give you success and happiness but yourself,” he said.