How often do you meet a man who, at age one hundred years old, still remembers events that took place many years ago?
I first met Juan Ponce Enrile back in 1971. He was 47, I was 13. A chance meeting as my late father took me along to meet the man who would play a pivotal role in the history of our nation.
JPE, born Juan Valentin Furagganan on February 14, 1924 (now 100 years old) is a man with bragging rights not only as a rich repository of the nation’s historic events, but in many cases, he was part of it. I was immediately captivated by his mental acuity and his charm.
Years later, I would be seeing him more often as I began my close association with his family. He would be a father figure not only to me but to many of his children’s close friends. Hence, my close association with the Enrile family has given me countless precious lessons on life.
I have had the privilege and honor to have spent many hours with him - just him and I up north in his province of Cagayan where we would have conversations like a son would have with his father. He would remind me often never to gloat in my victories and to remain steadfast in my defeats.
This was at a time when certain forces were out to discredit him from society and from public opinion, and from the wheels of justice.
When he was incarcerated in a small room inside Camp Crame, my frequent visits to him with his daughter Katrina would always be a lesson to learn. Here was a man who never complained about his life’s sufferings even if they tried to silence him and punish him.
In one of our conversations, I asked him how it was like when the Japanese imprisoned him as a Filipino guerilla. “The Japanese Kempeitai soldiers tried to break my spirit, but all they ever broke were my bones,” replied JPE.
Today, many years after, even as his bones are now brittle from old age, his spirit remains intact and that his life lessons are still applicable to anyone who would be a willing student of history and humanity.
As to the secret of his longevity, there really is no secret. It’s not even the rumored stem cell treatments but simply family genes, proper nutrition and exercise. Add to that JPE loves to devour history books which include geopolitics and the lives of great men in the history of the world.
He also loves poetry, his favorite being “If” by Rudyard Kipling and Omar Khayyam's "The Rubaiyat." JPE has memorized by heart all 101 4-line quatrains of the poem and I have witnessed him a few times recite it to an almost near-perfect delivery.
One can always find him in front of his computer writing stuff while reading a book at the same time. He is still a multi-tasker even at an advanced age. He keeps a diary daily where he writes the events of the day each night before he retires to his quarters.
A wonderful conversationalist, and sitting down with him for a chat is like a crash course on history not only of the country but of the world. In my several trips with him to Sta. Ana, Cagayan a few years back, I would marvel at his work and leisure habits.
Here is a man who is frequently misunderstood by many people as much as feared by more, but I have known him to be a very compassionate man who would be easily angered at any wrongdoing done to another especially if that person was a victim of injustice.
While in his resthouse, we would enjoy his favorite ‘pagkaing probinsya’ consisting of fresh fish, maratangtang, igat, lato, tugi, saluyot, and in the ‘ber’ months, some majestic ludong, a highly-prized fish which is available only in the colder months beginning October till November.
And then, an occasional onse-onse crab which was aptly called because of its 11 spots around its shell.
Today, JPE has made a full circle. He now is back in Malacañang as a senior cabinet member (senior in age and stature) working as Chief Presidential Legal Counsel of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
I can only imagine the fulfillment the President feels knowing that the man who once served also under his late father’s government is that same man who now serves in his administration.
I remember too, the time he asked me why I did not pursue a law career being the grandson of the principal author of the Civil Code of the Philippines. I simply replied that there are already too many lawyers in the family and I just wanted to be different and to write freely.
He said that anyone who would follow his dreams will always live to see it happen – or his offspring will reap its glory someday. Juan Ponce Enrile’s shoes will always be too large for anyone to fill, for he is indeed a living treasure for our nation’s past and future.
I knew in my heart when at 13, I would see a man someday change the course of history. There was something in him. Something He had and will always have. It was like a secret blessing from a higher power that only he knew in his private moments with a deity.
In his memoirs he wrote these words some years back, “I am now on my last term in the Senate and it ends in 2016. By then, I would be 92. I just pray that I will stay in good health and in good humor. I am thankful to the Almighty, for I believe God has to be on your side if you last this long in life and in politics. Indeed, a strong and omnipotent power way beyond our human capacity to divine and comprehend directs each one of us to face our own destiny.”
“To have been able to serve my country through all these decades of trials and uncertainty and to have enjoyed the sweet and simple joys of a long and productive life is the best reward of all.”
And, in the last chapters of his memoirs, one can read these timeless words, “I have been judged and condemned many times, but I fear only the ultimate judgment of God and of history.”
In response to this, I once slipped him a note next to his computer: “Audentes fortuna iuvat, sic itur ad astra.” (Fortune favors the bold, thus you shall go to the stars someday in your immortality)
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