Does Juan Ponce Enrile Transcend Good and Evil?

I was born in 1988, which means that, while I technically grew up in the ‘90s, I didn’t develop an awareness of the world around me until around the early 2000s (although personal core memories from pre-95 are in there somewhere).

My earliest experience with the name Juan Ponce Enrile happened during the 2001 impeachment trial of ex-President Joseph Estrada, when JPE and the rest of “Joe’s Cohorts” (an acronym that some reporter should have gotten a promotion for, in my humble opinion) voted against opening an envelope that would allegedly prove Erap’s involvement in a P200 million jueteng scandal. The amount is roughly equivalent to P350 million in 2024 money. For reference, the PDAF scandal of 2013 (remember that whole thing?) was estimated to have cost taxpayers around PHP2.9 billion. With a B. But that’s another story.

Since then, JPE—along with the rest of the cohorts—became a symbol of corruption, at least in my experience being surrounded by nominally opposition and pro-Aquino grade school teachers and family. Enrile was immortal boogeyman that haunted the august halls of the Senate and hung like the sword of Damocles over the Presidents of the Philippines, and an undying specter of unspeakable evil and the shadow that plagues politics in the Philippines.

Or was he?

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Listen: I’m a standup comedian, I don’t know much about politics other than topical headlines I can use in my sets, so don’t expect this to be a deep dive on Enrile’s shady dealings. Rather, I’m just here to provide perspective, something that we may or may not miss when talking about someone who’s been around for so very long.

And he has been around for so long. Jesus Christ JPE is old. 100! The man is older than actual sliced bread, Mickey Mouse, the Geneva Conventions, and even Universal Suffrage. That gives you an idea of the kind of person that he is; that he was born and raised at a time when women weren’t allowed to vote and beating children for discipline, while probably not the norm, was condoned quietly.

“But Micah!” I hear your whining voice ask, “He’s as immoral as can be! There’s no excuse for that!”

Hey man, I’m not saying he didn’t do reprehensible shit, but for me, or you, or anyone, to pretend that they can understand how that eldritch statesman’s morality works is ill-advised. We can argue about morality and how, despite our religious upbringing, it’s usually perceived as immutable, but that’s another discussion, one reserved for poets and scholars, not comedians who make dick jokes on stage.

Surely, though, there are universal codes of morals and inviolable ideals that protect humanity? What about we agree that children should never be involved in any kind of political conflict? We agree that slavery is bad, no? Rape is never excusable, I’d like to think. Maybe as a society we can agree that eating people is wrong, too.

But even our opinions of those things vary across time and space: child soldiers are still used and killing children is justified in 2024 (not gonna say where but, y’know what I’m talking about). Slavery wasn’t formally abolished in all states in America until the early 2000s (Mississippi didn’t formally ratify the 13th amendment until 2013. Look it up). ‘Boys will be boys’ was (and probably still is) a laudable defense of sexual assault that almost withstood the #MeToo movement. And some Aghori monks still practice post-mortem cannibalism in the name of their religion.

We don’t even have to look too far: I was in high school from 2001 to 2005, and calling each other “bakla” as an insult then was the go-to for when you couldn’t think of anything clever to say. Try that in 2024 and see how fast your life gets ruined by adolescent keyboard warriors. And that was just 20 years ago.

(As an aside: holy shit, 2024 was 20 years ago. Choke on that, my fellow millennials!)

And before you go HRRRRR HE’S A HOMOPHOBE DRRRR, I’m just using that as an example of how social norms and mores are so fluid. It’s hard to assume the absolute morality of a person at any given timeframe, let alone one that spans a century.

Am I saying that JPE isn’t evil? Not exactly: he’s done quite a bit of political machinations that go against my own personal set of values, but to be honest, who am I to judge? Sure, he was part of the Rolex 12 during Martial Law, but so was Fidel Ramos, and we gave that dude a huge pass for some odd reason. And sure, he seemingly protected Estrada during the 2001 impeachment trial, but so did Miriam Defensor Santiago, and didn’t we try to make her a viable presidential candidate (up until her alliance with Marcos Jr., which rubbed some people off the wrong way)?

Again, this is not an investigative piece on JPE’s dalliances with the damned, but it does make you wonder what ancient codes and rituals he was raised with, what turn-of-the-century thinking shaped his actions, and how he probably had to buy ice from a third-party vendor because refrigerators weren’t a thing yet.

If anything, JPE reminds me of people who justify ends with the means, and whether that sits well or unwell with you is a personal matter. Hopefully, though, reflecting on the Filipino Lich King’s life and career gives us pause so we can assess where we draw our lines, morality-wise, and where some leeway is possible. After all, Delimondo is fucking delicious, and boycotting it doesn’t appeal to me.

Anyway, what’s your best ‘Enrile is so old’ joke?

Micah Andres is a standup comedian, writer, and currently unemployed. You can follow his shenanigans on IG and Tiktok(@mikeyandres, @micahandrescomedy)