15/11/2025
๐๐๐๐ง๐จ๐ฅ๐ | ๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ฟ๐ฐ๐ต๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐๐บ๐ฝ๐๐ป๐ถ๐๐: ๐๐๐ฎ๐ป ๐ฃ๐ผ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒ ๐๐ป๐ฟ๐ถ๐น๐ฒ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐๐ถ๐ ๐๐น๐ผ๐ผ๐ฑ๐ ๐๐ฒ๐ด๐ฎ๐ฐ๐
The death of Juan Ponce Enrile on 13 November 2025 prompted many to extend their sympathies and condolencesโa customary gesture of Filipino courtesy in the face of loss. Enrile, chief presidential legal counsel, died at the age of 101, according to his daughter, Katrina Ponce Enrile. Tributes poured in, recalling his โenduring public service.โ But for progressives, this is not a moment for sympathy. It is a moment for political reckoning: a reckoning with the thousands arrested, tortured, disappeared, and killed under his watch; with the millions whose lives were disrupted by the policies he helped craft. What endured was not just his term, but the impunity he helped build and the unanswered cries for justice left in its wake.
๐๐ฟ๐ฐ๐ต๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐๐ถ๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ฎ๐
As Defense Secretary and architect of Proclamation 1081, signed on 21 September 1972, Enrile played a significant role in the imposition of Martial Law. The alleged ambush on his car on 22 September 1972โthe event cited as justification for Marcos Sr.โs dictatorshipโremains controversial. At a press conference with Fidel Ramos in February 1986, Enrile reportedly admitted the ambush was fake. Decades later, he clarified in a 2012 interview that while the ambush was staged, he did not specify who staged it or claim to have done so himself. While his memoir and interviews attempted to shape public perception, survivors and historians see the ambush as part of a deliberate strategy to legitimize Martial Law and consolidate authoritarian power.
๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ต๐ถ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ฅ๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป
The staged ambush became the centerpiece of a narrative portraying the Philippines as under threat from communists and rebelsโa pretext to suspend civil liberties, arrest thousands, and silence dissent. Across the Philippines, from the University of the Philippines in Diliman to provincial towns in Mindanao and Samar, students, activists, labor organizers, journalists, and ordinary citizens were rounded up under Martial Law, often without warrants or due process. About 70,000 people were arrested, 34,000 were tortured, and 3,240 were killed by the military and police, while over 800 were forcibly disappeared. The crackdown also extended to the press, with 464 media outlets closed immediately following the declaration of Martial Law.
In Samar, as in many rural and Indigenous areas across the Philippines, communities suffered under the militarized counterinsurgency campaigns of the Martial Law regime. Farmers, village leaders, and Indigenous peoples lived under constant surveillance, arbitrary arrests, and violent operations documented by human rights groups of the period. In Mindanao and the Bangsamoro region, military campaigns and government-backed operations led to widespread displacement and abuses against Moro and Indigenous communities, disrupting livelihoods and exploiting lands. Historical incidents, including the Jabidah, Manili, and Palimbang massacres, exemplify the widespread violence faced by these communities. These were not isolated events but systemic patterns of repression that scarred entire generations.
๐๐ป๐ฟ๐ถ๐น๐ฒโ๐ ๐๐บ๐ฝ๐ถ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐
But blood was not the only mark of his legacy. Behind his official power, Enrile built vast business empires, including logging corporations such as JAKA Logging in Samar, San Jose Timber in Northern Samar, and other ventures across Mindanao, which exploited Indigenous and Moro lands with the backing of the military. Entire communities were displaced, forests cleared, and traditional livelihoods destroyed under the guise of โdevelopment.โ Alongside Danding Cojuangco, he siphoned billions of pesos from the coconut levy fund in the late 1970s and early 1980sโa tax forcibly collected from coconut farmers intended to modernize the industry, but instead used to enrich cronies.
Even after Marcos Sr.โs fall in 1986, Enrile retained wealth, political influence, and legal protections that allowed him to avoid accountability for decades. In the end, Enrile became the architect of impunity. He did not just escape justice for his crimes; he helped maintain political and economic systems that protected the power and wealth of a privileged few. Until his death, he participated in historical whitewashing, denying the arrests, torture, killings, and agreements that were part of Martial Lawโs brutal reality.
๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฆ๐๐ฟ๐๐ด๐ด๐น๐ฒ ๐๐ผ๐ฟ ๐๐๐๐๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฒ ๐๐ผ๐ป๐๐ถ๐ป๐๐ฒ๐, ๐๐ผ๐ฟ ๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ถ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฑ
Yet Enrile himself should not be the focus of remembrance. What must be remembered are the victims of Martial Law. Their suffering is a stark reminder that the fight against corruption, state violence, and dictatorship does not end with the death of a single individual. It continues in the collective effort to defend human rights, hold power accountable, and preserve the memory of those who endured unimaginable atrocities.
Juan Ponce Enrileโs passing is not an excuse for absolution, but a wake-up call for accountability, vigilance, and defending historical truth. Every memory of his crimes is a reminder of our responsibility to ensure such abuse of power never happens again. Enrileโs death is a call to remember and honor the victims, and to build a society free from impunity. In his memory lies a warning: the struggle for justice continues, for the living and the dead. | via John Paul Fernandez/ThePILLARS Publication
Pubmat by Kurt Rosana/ThePILLARS Publication
