PHNO-SB: JUAN PONCE ENRILE: NOW AN OPEN BOOK

JUAN PONCE ENRILE: NOW AN OPEN
BOOK

[PHOTO -Author
Nelson Navarro holds a copy of Juan Ponce Enrile : A Memoir which was launched
last Thursday at the Peninsula Manila .The book is available at National Book
Store.]
MANILA, OCTOBER 1, 2012 (PHILSTAR) By Nelson A. Navarro - Juan
Ponce Enrile was, never — repeat, never — my jailer. As Secretary of National
Defense, he did issue an order for my arrest on Aug. 21, 1971 for alleged
complicity in the Plaza Miranda bombing. But I was 10,000 miles away attending a
student conference in the United States. There I stayed for the next 17 years as
an anti-Marcos exile.
Fast forward to November 2011, some 40 years later, Enrile sends me a feeler
from out of the blue to edit an autobiography he was planning to publish. He's
the President of the Senate on the brink of public adulation and full political
rehabilitation with the upcoming impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato
Corona. I had long moved on from movement politics to journalism and the writing
of biographies. The very thought that I was being enlisted for help by Ferdinand
Marcos' martial law administrator simply blew my mind.
Had Enrile succeeded in jailing me, I don't think he would have dared to ask
for my services. Nor would I have even entertained the idea of working with him.
But no such rankling personal issues stood between us. I had turned my exile
into the best years of my own life, lonely at first but, oddly enough, an
unparalleled period of self-discovery and freedom. Indeed, I had met Enrile
several times over the years after Marcos' downfall under cordial but still
guarded circumstances.

[PHOTO -President Aquino in Enrile book launch Photo by Gil Nartea, Malacañang Photo,09/28/2012 12:04 AM:
President Aquino is welcomed by Lopez Group Chairman Emeritus Oscar Lopez during
the launch of Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile's autobiographical book on
Thursday. Aquino lauded the book for its contribution to the country's
historical record and lessons from the past.]
"Take a look at my manuscript," Enrile sheepishly tells me three weeks later
at a Japanese lunch arranged by mutual friends. "I am not a writer, I am just a
lawyer."
I find this tone of humility rather disarming and unusual for a man reputed
to have a bad temper and a strong distaste for radicals of the past and present.
Why would Enrile put his prospective rehabilitation, assuming that was his
objective, in my possibly unsympathetic, if hostile, hands? Why count on the
tender mercies of someone he had ordered jailed in the not-so-distant past?
Wishing to be polite and not to offend, I tell my host that I'd take a quick
read of his book and see if there was a way we could work together. He sent me
four huge bound volumes, some 2,000 pages of raw copy, that required two of his
beefy bodyguards to bring up to my apartment.
I couldn't sleep that night. Once I started reading, I couldn't disengage
until the morning sun was shining through my bedroom window. This was my reading
fare for the next few days.
Our next meeting takes place a month later amid the furor and excitement
generated by his firm and erudite handling of the impeachment trial.

[PHOTO -1972 Revisited: Imelda Marcos, Cristina Ponce
Enrile, Juan Ponce Enrile, and P-Noy Aquino]
"Did you like my book?" he asks anxiously. "I know my writing style is not
that good."
I tell him flat out that, yes, I like the book and had found it a very moving
story of a man who struggles against all odds and achieves his dreams. The
quintessential survivor.
"It's not the literary style that counts," I say in all sincerity, "the
important thing is that you wrote it from the heart. You touched on what you
experienced and what you felt. People may disagree and have other ideas. But
it's your story and it must be told."
We shake hands and our collaboration on his memoir begins.
Seven months later, on September 27, the book is launched in the grand manner
with three Presidents of the Republic and a who's who of society in attendance.
ABS-CBN the media giant is the publisher and convenor of the event.

[PHOTO -Tri-Net: Federico Lopez, Lance Gokongwei, and
MVP]
What really went into the making of Juan Ponce Enrile: A Memoir?
Enrile provided such a wealth of information and detail that our first task
was to boil the unwieldy text down to a tighter and more digestible form. Who
would care to read an autobiography the size of an encyclopedia?
My task as his editor was to get rid of the extensive press commentaries that
the author had merrily tucked into the manuscript. Most were repetitive and
could be condensed into a few paragraphs or eliminated outright. Enrile seemed
enamored with a number of columnists who wrote long and kilometric pieces for or
against him. A single incident at the Bureau of Customs, which he headed in the
early years, would merit 12 or more pages of interminable coverage and debate.

Although the final copy came down to 754 pages, nothing truly substantive was
eliminated. Part of the magic was due to a change to a smaller typeface. All the
major events and points Enrile touched on in the original manuscript were
retained. If the portion on Edna Camcan seems heavily edited, the truth is that
Enrile wrote tersely about subjects bordering on the personal, determined not to
provide any detail that would seem salacious or libelous.

[PHOTO -Johnny's girls: Cristina and Katrina
Ponce Enrile]
I knew next to nothing about Enrile before I pored over the rough draft of
his autobiography. All I knew of the man was straight out of my student activist
days: he was a brilliant man who lent his time and talent to the evil Marcos
regime. Ergo, why bother at all about what he has to say?
But I was soon disabused of my blatant personal bias. The Juan Ponce Enrile
who emerged from the printed words was a more complex man of high personal
ideals and a stubborn belief, right or wrong, in the good intentions of his
chosen leader. He was loyal to a fault and he was not the type who would submit
to political correctness or pander to the mob. He would never run away from a
fight he considered a matter of principle. The man has character. Plenty of it.

Admittedly of illegitimate birth and raised in rural poverty, his was an
uphill fight against ignorance and hopelessness complicated by war, imprisonment
and torture. Only when Enrile met his father for the first time did he find a
proud identity and purpose in life. He was 21 and had only finished first year
high school when he set foot in Manila.
Making up for lost time and opportunity, he went on to college and became a
lawyer like his father, always at the top of his class. He won a graduate
scholarship to Harvard, specializing in corporate law and taxation that made him
a leading Manila lawyer and a fairly wealthy man in just a couple of years. He
married a beautiful and talented woman, raised two children and established a
home he never had in his youth.

[PHOTO -His father's son: Jackie Ponce Enrile]
This Horatio Algeresque story of triumph over adversity extended to Enrile's
early years in government when he joined the first Marcos cabinet in 1966. For
the next four years, he was counted among the "Best and the Brightest" of the
technocrats in a government that consciously evoked JFK's Camelot. There was no
hint of scandal whatsoever. Media dubbed him Mr. Clean. Enrile was an honorable
name marked for future advancement into elective office, possibly as a senator
and even president of the realm.

[PHOTO -Aawitan Kita and more: Senator Enrile's sister,
Armida Siguion-Reyna]
Harsh reversal of fortune came with the turmoil that followed Marcos'
election to a second term in 1969. A faltering economy and all-out antagonism of
the opposition turned the administration into a tottering regime under siege.
This provided the opening for a student rebellion that also saw the rebirth of
the outlawed communist movement that called for armed overthrow of the
government. In the South, the Muslim minority was restive and in no time there
would come to fore a full-blown separatist movement.
As Defense Secretary, Enrile was in the direct line of fire. He was defending
a presidency under direct threat of subversion and mayhem. He could not but
fight with and inherit Marcos' enemies. When he signed on for martial law, his
fate was sealed.

[PHOTO -Break, break down: Enrile tears up while talking
about his book]
In his memoir, Enrile makes an excruciating but honest accounting of his
almost 20 years in the service of Marcos, where he thought he made positive
contributions and where he made terrible mistakes. The falling-out with Marcos
was inevitable, given Enrile's personal character and the increasingly dark side
of the regime.
For all that, the unavoidable question I had to ask myself was whether I
believe Enrile to be an honorable man whose word I could count on.
After reading his testimony in full, I could only come to one conclusion: the
man has been unfairly judged. Part of the reason, I quickly realized, was that
his story has never been told in full and therefore there was no real basis for
judging his life as well as his integrity. His critics and adversaries had
defined him, most unfavorably of course, and he had wasted all those years
without firing back, if only in self-defense.
If his memoir could only be published and read by a wider public, Enrile
could be viewed in a far better light than he has been all those years under
Marcos' terrible shadow. He would not exactly come out a saint but, nonetheless,
a decent man who, for almost 50 years of a remarkable but roller-coaster
political career, has been trying his best to serve his country and people. It
was just about time Enrile put himself on record and in his own words.
Enrile's authentic voice must be heard and let history be the final
judge.

[VIDEO -Senate
President Juan Ponce Enrile hopes to share his lessons from the past with his
book, "Juan Ponce Enrile: A Memoir". The autobiography was launched at the
Manila Peninsula with President Aquino as guest of honor. ANC's Tony Velasquez
has more. The World Tonight, ANC, September 27, 2012
]




Chief News Editor: Sol
Jose Vanzi

© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE
HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
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