Juan Ponce Enrile, a shrewd political operator who helped usher in the darkest repression of the late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos Snr’s rule, died on Thursday at the age of 101, his daughter said.
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Enrile, who was being treated for pneumonia, died at home at 4.21pm “surrounded by our family”, Katrina Ponce Enrile said on her Facebook page, adding there would be a public viewing.
Known as the architect of the brutal martial law used to crush opposition to Marcos’ rule, Harvard-educated Enrile was a long-time top adviser to the authoritarian leader.
Enrile later turned on Marcos and was instrumental in sparking the popular 1986 uprising that led to the president’s ouster less than three years after the 1983 murder of opposition leader Benigno Aquino.
True to his survivor instincts, Enrile switched sides again and helped the Marcos family in their remarkable political comeback after they returned to the Philippines from exile.
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After Ferdinand Marcos Jnr, the late dictator’s son, won the 2022 presidential election, he named Enrile his chief legal counsel, two years shy of his 100th birthday.