Juan Ponce Enrile

Juan Ponce Enrile Sr. (born February 14, 1924), is a Filipino politician. He was a protégé of President Ferdinand Marcos, and served as Justice Secretary and then Defense Minister under the Marcos regime. He later became one of the leaders (along with General Fidel V. Ramos) of the 1986 People Power Revolution that drove Marcos from power and into exile. Enrile has continued to be a prominent politician since then; he was Senate President from November 2008 until his resignation on June 5, 2013.

Early life and career

Enrile was born in Gonzaga, Cagayan, to Petra Furagganan, the stepdaughter of a poor fisherman. He was born out of wedlock—his father was the already married powerful regional politician and renowned lawyer Alfonso Ponce Enrile, and his second great-uncle was Mariano Ponce. As a young man, he was reunited with his father in the City of Manila and took his secondary education at the Saint James Academy in Malabon.

He graduated cum laude in 1949 with an Associate of Arts degree at the Ateneo de Manila University. Afterward, he attended the University of the Philippines College of Law and graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Laws degree. While in law school, he joined the Sigma Rho fraternity. Upon graduation, he was elected to the Pi Gamma Mu and Phi Kappa Phi international honor societies. He achieved the 11th highest score in the 1953 bar examinations with a 91.72% rating and a perfect score in mercantile law. As a scholar at the Harvard Law School, he earned a Master of Laws degree with specialized training in international tax law.