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Photo Courtesy of Rappler and Inquirer.net Photo layout by: Maverick Rhoy De Vera / The LANCE
Juan Ponce Enrile has passed. On November 13, 2025, at 101 years old, the political figure who cast one of the longest shadows over Philippine governance succumbed to pneumonia.
His passing closes a chapter that spanned dictatorships, revolutions, Senate battles, and six decades of influence that few in the nation’s history have ever matched. His life is now remembered in many ways and words, but perhaps nothing is more fitting than “polarizing.”
In a statement, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin called Enrile an enduring presence through some of the country’s most turbulent years.
“Juan Ponce Enrile was an icon of stability during times of tribulation in our history,” Bersamin said.
He described Enrile as “a legal luminary and political titan whose contributions to public life profoundly shaped the history of our country.”
Bersamin noted that Enrile spent decades championing what he saw as the interests of the Filipino people and working “to strengthen our institutions and to uphold the principles and tenets that make our nation great.”
Bersamin also recalled Enrile’s public mantra.
“Gusto ko happy ka is forever etched in the consciousness of the Filipino people,” he said, adding that Enrile served “with utmost dedication and unqualified commitment.”
Enrile’s ascent began in the 1960s under President Ferdinand Marcos. He became one of the administration’s most trusted technocrats and eventually served as Minister of National Defense, a role that placed him at the center of martial law operations.
Born in Gonzaga, Cagayan in 1924, Enrile carried the dual image of strategist and strongman. Supporters cited his legal acumen and administrative command. Critics cited the deep imprint of state repression that unfolded under his watch.
His later electoral career began in 1987, where he secured a Senate seat and built a reputation for mastery of legislation. By 2008, he rose to Senate President, steering the chamber through intense political conflicts until 2013. In his later years, he returned to Malacañang as Chief Presidential Legal Counsel under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Even at the moment of his death, the other half of Enrile’s legacy remained forcefully voiced.
The human rights group SELDA, composed of former political detainees, issued a statement that directly challenged any narrative of heroism.
“Enrile utilized to the hilt the military and police’s role as instruments of state terror,” the group said.
“Under his command, state forces arrested, tortured and caused the enforced disappearance of thousands of activists, students, journalists, and ordinary citizens,” it added.
SELDA insisted that the end of his life did not close the call for accountability.
“There can be no mourning for a man who represented impunity from dictatorship to corruption from lies and betrayal of public trust,” the statement read.
These words reflect the counterweight that has always followed Enrile. He remained a figure defined as much by the power he wielded as by the wounds remembered by those who lived through the dictatorship.
Not long before his demise, Enrile proved that even to the end, he was not a man who loses. In one of the last major developments of his long public life, the Sandiganbayan acquitted him of all 15 graft charges tied to the alleged diversion of P172.8 million in pork barrel funds.
The ruling came from the court’s Special Third Division, which also cleared his former chief of staff Jessica Lucila “Gigi” Reyes and businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles, who is already serving a separate plunder sentence for the multibillion peso Priority Development Assistance Fund scandal.
The decision capped years of litigation involving some of the most controversial personalities linked to the pork barrel scheme.
In a report, the court issued a 193 page decision stating that there was a “clear lack of evidence” showing Enrile received kickbacks or commissions for endorsing nongovernmental organizations associated with Napoles.
The ruling noted that the prosecution failed to prove that funds released to the NGOs between 2004 and 2010 benefited Enrile personally.
The court highlighted the testimony weaknesses from witness Ruby Tuason, noting that she could not substantiate claims that Enrile received any portion of the alleged kickbacks.
The decision extinguished what remained of the criminal cases against the former Senate President and allowed him to close his final years without a conviction tied to the pork barrel controversy.
The life of Juan Ponce Enrile is not easily summarized. It stretches across administrations, uprisings, and eras of upheaval.
His contributions as a lawmaker and adviser earned him respect among political allies and successive presidents. Yet the accounts of torture, disappearances, and state violence under martial law persist with equal force.
The tributes from government officials and the condemnation from human rights groups illustrate the enduring divide in how Filipinos remember him.
Enrile leaves behind a record that continues to shape national debate on power, accountability, and the cost of political stability.
In death, as in life, he remains a figure who defined the country’s political landscape and continues to challenge the nation to confront the past he helped shape.