Accountability, 6-feet-deep

Grim Reaper is portrayed as the end and judgment. Story has it that he brings around a sickle to harvest souls. But to the wicked, it’s more than just death that awaits, but the souls of lives and a nation stripped of dignity and glory. Thankfully, death only kills the body, not the story.

On November 11, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada asked for prayers for Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile, who had a slim chance of survival due to pneumonia. A few days later, his daughter announced Enrile’s passing. 

Famously dubbed as an archaic figure, internet memes humor his age. For context, he was just about 40 years old when the first Philippine president, Emilio Aguinaldo, died; and even served as a cabinet member under the current 17th president. Long story short, he was old enough to have witnessed everything from the start. 

Best known as Manong Johnny, his “statesmanship” started as a personal legal affairs staff of then Senator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., and during his presidency, he became a Justice Secretary and the Minister of National Defense. 

As the architect and implementor of Martial Law, his role was indispensable, and ultimately, Martial Law happened because he pulled tricks. Masked as a counter-insurgency measure, the “ambush” of Enrile kicked off the “necessity” to place the country under terror. The Official Gazette, however, reported Enrile’s admission that the ambush was a con and a make-believe danger to escalate the tension. 

The result is chilling: combined unlawful detention and torture cases total more than 100,000, and extrajudicial killing is documented to 3,257, but the whole story is not yet captured. In the lush cathedral of greens in Northern Samar, trees were logged, which led to severe deforestation; from 17 million forest cover, we’re down to 6.5 million. The worst part was, around 45 people were massacred. Independent human rights groups later revealed that soldiers responsible for the grenade-massacre doubled as security guards working under San Jose Timber Corporation (SJTC) owned by Enrile himself. 

He was also linked to the Coco Levy Scam, along with Marcos Sr. and Danding Cojuangco. Promised to improve the coconut industry, the funds were not for the coconut farmers, but for the cronies’ own pockets. Nothing has changed. In 2023, the Supreme Court junked graft case against Enrile. 

To Martial Law survivors and prisoners, no tears shed for Enrile. Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainee Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA) stressed: “Enrile will forever be remembered neither as a patriot nor a statesman, but as one of the chief architects and defenders of tyranny, repression, and corruption in the country”. The horrors of this dark past: torture, sexual assault, desaparecidos, were eventually owed to him. The machinery he powered, built on the weakness and vulnerability of the people and the greed of politicians, never got to be dismantled. He only got to see grand corruption and misery unfold before his eyes.

When things went south, Enrile played the “military defector” against Marcos Sr. and eventually joined the call to remove him from office.  Surprisingly, he nabbed a Senate seat under Corazon Aquino. Even under her presidency, Enrile’s greed for power was over the top, as he planned a coup against her, but eventually failed.

His story is far from closing; later, he became part of the House of Representatives in 1995 under Fidel V. Ramos. Additionally, under Gloria Arroyo’s term, he sat as the Senate President in 2008. Unfortunately, his old age doesn’t permit him to behave as he should and repent. Instead, he got himself tangled with disbursements of “cash gift” from the Senate’s  Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) among his close confidants. He was even charged with multiple cases because of pork-barrel corruption, Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) in 2014. The same thing happened; he walked free without damage.

Without a doubt, he is the epitome of pambansang balimbing. His central goal was to protect himself and his interests at the expense of other people. Enrile lived a prosperous century while sanitizing his bloody hands. 

What we don’t realize is that the justice system failed us not because Enrile lived too comfortably long, but the fact that justice had to wait so long only to be dismissed. Case after case, yet he was granted bail and acquittal. On what grounds, you may ask? Simply humanitarian and low flight risk, but this is selective. In 2020, an elderly jeepney driver faced raps for protesting amidst a lack of aid during the pandemic – no exceptions. For a powerless old citizen like him, “Age does not grant immunity” holds true. In fact, data from the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) revealed that more than 4,500 senior citizens are detained for proven and alleged cases. Why can’t this apply to Enrile? Is Enrile exponentially older than them? Justice will remain an abstract concept if it serves a select few. It doesn’t come from the lineage of the elite and rich, but from the clamor of the masses.

Enrile saw dictators come and go, incompetent administrations rise and fall, and he eventually saw himself outliving the atrocities he enabled, so much so that he got a space in the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Republic Act No. 289 designates the grave for patriots worthy of emulation and inspiration for future generations. Conferring heroism to him insinuates grave historical distortion, all the more highlighting that the only thing we can do is to cling to memory – it is our last resistance because the law failed to defend us. 

Even after death, the world remembers – so will the forest, the streets, the corners of the office, the gavel in the Senate, the families and their children. Atrocities don’t get buried along the body; they remain in the book, in the memory, and in the pillars of eroding democracy. History will continue to tell the tale, even if institutions clean his name with a badge and honor. 

Time has proven once more that the law was evaded and justice was served to the ruling class. Nonetheless, I’d like to remain optimistic: If not by the virtue of law, it will be at the expense of one’s soul. One cannot escape justice twice after all. The world may be fair, but it’s just that we don’t know it.