Journal De Bruxelles - Juan Ponce Enrile, architect of Philippine martial law, dies at 101: daughter

Enrile, who was being treated for pneumonia, died at home at 4:21 pm (0821 GMT) "surrounded by our family", Katrina Ponce Enrile said on her Facebook page, adding there would be a public viewing.

Known as the architect of the brutal martial law used to crush opposition to Marcos's rule, Harvard-educated Enrile was a long-time top adviser to the authoritarian leader.

Enrile later turned on Marcos and was instrumental in sparking the popular 1986 uprising that led to the president's ouster less than three years after the 1983 murder of opposition leader Benigno Aquino.

True to his survivor instincts, Enrile switched sides again and helped the Marcos family in their remarkable political comeback after they returned to the Philippines from exile.

After Ferdinand Marcos Jr, the late dictator's son, won the 2022 presidential election, he named Enrile his chief legal counsel, two years shy of his 100th birthday.

A wily politician, Enrile never spent a day behind bars for his role in the Marcos dictatorship despite its human rights abuses.

Instead, he enjoyed a decades-long career as a lawmaker.

- 'A good beginning sours' -

According to his memoir, Enrile was a widow's son by a prominent married lawyer. He was born Juanito Furagganan on February 14, 1924.

The boy later took his father's name and became a respected attorney himself, as well as a close confidant of rising politician Marcos, who would win the presidency in 1965.

Before becoming defence minister, Enrile held other key posts, including customs chief and justice minister.

Marcos's order implementing martial law in 1972 cited various acts of terror around the country, including an alleged communist guerrilla assassination attempt on Enrile.

Many years later, Enrile gave differing statements on that key event, saying at one point the claimed ambush was made up, and then writing in his memoir that it had actually happened.

Under martial law, Enrile was the second-most-powerful man in the country, deciding who could be jailed or freed.

Amnesty International estimates Marcos's security forces either killed, tortured, sexually abused, mutilated or arbitrarily detained tens of thousands of opponents.

Under legislation signed in 2013 by former president Benigno Aquino -- son and namesake of the opposition leader assassinated 30 years earlier -- more than 11,000 victims have been officially recognised and compensated.

Enrile never apologised for his role in the dictatorship and even defended martial law.

"It was operating well at least from 1972 all the way to 1975, but somehow along the way, just like everything that we do in this country, a good beginning sours," he told journalists in 2006.

- 'People Power' -

By the 1980s, Marcos was ailing, and it was becoming clear that his wife Imelda and her allies were not planning to keep Enrile in the future regime.

In response, Enrile organised a cabal of disgruntled young military officers into the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM), laying plans to seize power.

The 1983 murder of Aquino by soldiers loyal to Marcos and massive cheating in 1986 polls caused widespread unrest, further weakening Marcos's position.

The RAM sought to exploit the situation with a plot to overthrow the Marcos government, but their plan was discovered before it could be launched.

Facing arrest, Enrile and his allies holed up at the military headquarters in Manila and appealed to the public to protect them from an imminent government attack.

Millions of people poured onto the streets in response, triggering the "People Power" revolt that toppled Marcos, installed Aquino's widow Corazon as president, and restored democracy.

In gratitude for his role in Marcos's downfall, Aquino appointed Enrile as her defence minister, but he stayed in her cabinet for only a short time.

He was thrice briefly arrested, in 1990, 2001, and 2014, the first two times for alleged involvement in coup plots and the last over the embezzlement of public funds.

All the while, Enrile remained an influential figure, serving as a lawmaker for most of the period, including as Senate president from 2008 to 2013.

In 2014, Enrile was arrested with two other senators for allegedly receiving bribes as part of a massive corruption scandal in which hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds intended for development projects were pilfered.

But while his co-accused languished behind bars, the Supreme Court, citing Enrile's "fragile health", granted him bail in 2015, allowing him to spend his twilight days at home.

A special graft court dismissed the plunder, or massive corruption, charges against Enrile last year, and last month acquitted him of the remaining graft cases against him as well.

J.M.Gillet--JdB