By Aaron Ernest Cruz

MANILA – For victims of martial law and human rights groups,  Juan Ponce Enrile would be remembered as a human rights violator, plunderer, and “a personification of impunity.”

Enrile died at the age of 101. 

Enrile, who was Defense Minister during the rule of Ferdinand Marcos Sr., staged an ambush on September 22, 1972 to justify the implementation of martial law.

During martial law, records showed that 70,000 were unjustly arrested, 34,000 tortured, 3,240 people killed, and 737 enforced disappearance. 

“Enrile utilized to the hilt the military and police’s role as instruments of state terror,” Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainee Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA) said in a statement. “Under his command, state forces arrested, tortured and caused the enforced disappearance of thousands of activists, students, journalists, and ordinary citizens.” 

Aside from human rights violations, Enrile’s name was linked to cases of corruption. 

Enrile was appointed by Marcos Sr. as president of the Philippine Coconut Authority where he, together with Danding Cojuangco, took control of the coconut industry.  The Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law (CARMMA) said that Enrile is believed to have cornered P28.01 billion ($ 475 million) from the coco levy, a tax forced on coconut farmers during that time. CARMMA said the funds were used to finance Enrile’s business enterprises.

CARMMA summed up Enrile’s legacy as defined by “lies, deception, and a complete lack of integrity – qualities unworthy of honor.”

SELDA asserted that Enrile turning back on Marcos Sr. during the 1986 EDSA People Power uprising “is only for self-ambition and to save himself from accountability for the crimes he committed.”

Impunity persists after martial law

Even after martial law, Enrile became involved in corruption cases, including the 2012 Priority Development Assistant Fund (PDAF) scam. He was recently acquitted of graft in connection with the PDAF.

SELDA maintained that Enrile’s death does not mean that demand for accountability stops. “SELDA and for the victims of Martial Law, there can be no mourning for a man who represented impunity – from dictatorship to corruption, from lies and betrayal of public trust.” (RVO)