Metro Manila, Philippines – Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile has been confined in the intensive care unit (ICU) with pneumonia, Senator Jinggoy Estrada disclosed during a Senate session on Tuesday, Nov. 11.
“I have just received a very, very sad information, that our former colleague, former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile is currently in the intensive care unit of an undisclosed hospital, suffering from pneumonia,” Estrada said.
“And I heard from a reliable source, a very, very reliable source that he has slim chances of surviving,” he added, as he asked for prayers for the aging official.
Senator Joel Villanueva, son of televangelist and CIBAC party-list Rep. Eddie Villanueva, led the chamber in prayer.
A founder of PECABAR Law (Ponce Enrile Reyes & Manalastas), Enrile, 101, was the former justice secretary and defense minister of the late former President Ferdinand E. Marcos and chief implementer of martial law in the 1970s. He also led a mutiny with then armed forces vice chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Fidel Ramos, against Marcos that led to the EDSA Revolution in 1987. He was a longtime member of Congress, including as Senate president from 2008 to 2013 and presided over the impeachment trial of then Chief Justice Renato Corona.
In October, a frail Enrile, appearing remotely from the hospital, attended the promulgation of his graft cases linked to the multibillion-peso pork barrel scam, where his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) was allegedly funneled into fake non-government organizations. The Supreme Court has since declared the PDAF unconstitutional.
Enrile was allowed to post bail on humanitarian grounds this year. The Sandiganbayan acquitted him of plunder last year, and in October, his remaining graft charges were dismissed.
