Enrile is doing it right

If millions of Filipino ‘texters’ are enjoying better services and benefits from giant telecommunications companies, it is because once upon a time, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile lost his Php600-worth of call load and raised hell about it.

The Senate inquiries that exposed the inefficiencies of the National Telecommunications Commission and hidden charges, have pushed the telecommunications companies to devise more consumer benefiting schemes to pacify the angry Enrile.

If millions of Filipino consumers will be enjoying cheaper medicines as hospitals and drug companies, including small botikas, will be forced to sell them at government prices, it is also because aside from the legislative initiatives of Sen. Mar Roxas, the Senate President had lambasted giant pharmaceutical firm Pfizer during a Senate inquiry, with allusions that the firm was bribing government officials to protect its business interests.

When he was not yet the Senate President, JPE stood in line at the Department of Foreign Affairs to get himself a passport. He was surprised to discover that getting a passport is a long process, going from one window to another, or from one floor to another.

Together with the late Senator Blas Ople, then Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, JPE helped steward the Philippine Passport Act of 1996 that enumerates the minimum requirements for a Filipino citizen to acquire a Philippine passport.

Here is one story way way back: A Senate employee who saw that a Passport Act hearing was ongoing next door to a hearing where her own boss was presiding, dropped in. Knowing the legendary kindness of Senator Enrile especially to Senate employees, she asked a page to hand JPE a scribbled note, saying, “Sir, can you please ask the DFA officials what other document can my father show to prove he is a Filipino citizen to be able to get a passport? My family has exhausted all means to search for his birth certificate.”

She asked her officemate who was monitoring the hearing in behalf of their principal to note the DFA official’s answer because she had to return to her boss’s hearing in the other room.

How surprised she was when a waiter approached her. “Ma’am, kayo ho ba nagpadala ng note kay Senator Enrile? Pinapatawag po kayo [Ma’am, are you the lady who sent the note to Senator Enrile? He is asking for you].”

Returning to the Committee on Foreign Relations hearing, while standing at one end of the room near the back entrance, Senator Enrile waved the note to her.

She nodded.

Then she suddenly heard Senator Enrile went from left to right to the DFA officials present, “You people better get her father a passport!”

Immediately, one of the Undersecretaries approached the Senate employee and asked, “What document do you have in your possession?”

She answered, “Only the marriage contract.”

“Ok, that will do.”

A few days later, her father’s passport was delivered to her office.


In the Senate where he is the incumbent Pater Familias, it feels like a functioning Senate especially when the Senate President himself attends committee hearings.

Committee presiding chairs grin with pride and appreciation whenever Senate President Enrile enters the committee room. His presence suddenly infuses a heightened importance to the agenda.

Guests suddenly become jittery knowing that the Senate President really fires his guns and means business. He buttresses his concerns by recalling his personal historical experiences, cites relevant laws as if he were a walking compendium.

Former Senate Presidents were more selective in attending to the nitty-gritty of committee hearings. No one is as participative as Senate President Enrile.

Within the Senate, employees continue to rejoice and marvel at his compassion. JPE has put his foot down and ordered a ‘freeze-hiring’ policy that allowed the promotion of many long-time Senate employees who have remained in their positions and received the same salary levels because of too many political appointees in the past.


Who would think that once upon a time, the powerful Senate President was poor and born out of wedlock? He even had to work as a servant to a relative to be able to go to school.

The story of the Senate President life should be an inspiration to every boy in the far-flung barrios, a reminder that from living in a small kubo, he now presides over the “biggest House” of the land, the Philippine Senate.

When later he met his father who financed his education, Enrile continued to excel. He graduated salutatorian of the UP Law Class of 1953, placing 11th at the Bar exams with a grade of 91.72, with a perfect score in Commercial Law.

As a result, he was offered a scholarship by the Harvard University where he later earned a Master of Laws degree in taxation and corporate reorganization.

Now at the pinnacle of his life, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile is leaving a legacy of benefits to uplift the lives of generations of Filipinos.

As the steward of the Senate, he is doing it right.

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