Cagayan Rep. Jack in showbiz tie-up with Jobert's company

MANILA, Philippines - He never saw himself as a politician.

Because he’s the son of Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile (with former Ambassador to Vatican Cristina Castaner-Ponce Enrile), now Cagayan (First District) Rep. Jack Enrile (photo) found himself caught in controversies; his moves, no matter how innocuous, were given color and meaning. For relief, Jack left for the States for soul-searching. It wasn’t an easy life (his father cut Jack’s credit line). The happy-go-lucky Jack came home a changed man. He had found himself.

Jack finished elementary (1972) and high school (1976) education at Ateneo de Manila University; Bachelor of Arts at Christian Heritage College, El Cajon, California; and Presidential Masters in Business Administration at Pepperdine University, Malibu, California. He is married to former Cagayan Province Rep. Salvacion “Sally” Santiago of Angat and Guiguinto, Bulacan. They have two kids: Sarah Simone or Sara, 18, and Samuel or Sam, 10. Jack has two daughters from a previous relationship: Kristine Kamille or Kriska, 32, and Maria Karina or Ina, 30. He is a proud grandfather to Matteo, 10.

What he shunned before he now embraces with all his heart. He is very much involved in politics. An unconventional change agent, Jack has stands up for fairness and equity, believing that uplifting the lives of Filipinos can only be done if one empowers them and involves them in the process.

The original author of Batas Kasambahay or the Magna Carta of Household Helpers, he is also the author of Anti-Trust, increasing the allowable personal and additional exemptions of individual taxpayers; reducing the income tax rates of individual taxpayers; defending the crime of home invasion, among others. He is also an advocate of sovereignty and credit-card reform.

Jack has also gone showbiz.

“Showbiz has a great impact on people,” he admits. “Cagayan is like a typhoon capital, always visited by typhoons which is not the only problem in our province.”

In an effort to help his constituents some relief, Jack has thought of providing them entertainment.

“Everybody, including us in Cagayan, loves entertainment,” adds Jack who is the nephew of Armida “Tita Midz” Siguion-Reyna. “When we get hold of a newspaper, whether broadsheet or tabloid, the first thing that we turn to is the entertainment section, di ba?”

Jack has just forged a tie-up with Jobert Sucaldito’s Front Desk Entertainment Productions. Together, they will give Cagayanons the kind of entertainment that they want.

Beyond Cagayan, what?

Rep. Jack didn’t say if he had any plan of running for a national office someday.