President Marcos honors Enrile

MANILA, Philippines — President Marcos honored his former chief legal counsel and “mentor” Juan Ponce Enrile during necrological rites at Malacañang yesterday.

In his eulogy for his “Tito Johnny,” Marcos recalled the close relationship between their families.

“What I do know is that since we came to live in this Palace, he was a constant fixture in my life. He was always here. He was always there,” Marcos said.

“And we didn’t – it was such a close relationship between our families that it wasn’t just work in the offices here,” he added.

Enrile died on Nov. 13 at the age of 101. His daughter Katrina said her father would be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig today.

The President described Enrile as “my dad’s guy.”

“You could tell that he had a special place even in my father’s heart, only because… And the reason I say that is because there are very few people that I saw my father not just give instructions to, but listen to. He was one of those very few people,” he said.

Enrile served as defense minister during the term of Marcos’ father, dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Enrile is regarded as the architect and implementer of martial law, signing the arrest warrants for Marcoses’ political opponents and critics.

Marcos said the Marcoses and Enriles found themselves “on the opposite sides of the barricade” during the EDSA people power revolt in February 1986. 

“And so it was always a little – I was always a little, ‘What will I do when I see Tito Johnny? How is it going to be? Will he be angry with me? Will he be very – will it be awkward?’ It wasn’t. It wasn’t,” Marcos recalled.

“The relationship that we had forged between his family, my family, between himself, my father, between him and us, just took over,” he said.

Marcos also remembered working with Enrile when they were both congressmen in the 14th Congress.

“That’s when I started working with him, and I remembered that this is one of the smartest people I know. So I’d always pick his brain. I’d always go, and he taught me. He was my tutor. He was my mentor,” Marcos said.

He also recalled their moments together as senators: “I found myself in the Senate together with him. And