President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has named one more official to his Cabinet: former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile.
Enrile, who is 98 years old, is set to serve as Marcos Jr.’s presidential legal counsel, incoming press secretary Trixie Angeles announced Friday.
“Among the new nominees is former Philippine Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, who will re-enter public service as Presidential Legal Counsel-designate six years after announcing his retirement from politics in 2016,” she said in a statement.
Enrile’s inclusion in Marcos Jr.’s Cabinet marks an interesting turn of events considering the former’s role in the 1986 People Power Revolution that drove the President-elect’s father, former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr., and his family out of Malacañang Palace.
The former Senate President was also part of Marcos Sr.’s Cabinet, serving as Justice Secretary and Defense Minister during the Marcos Sr. administration. During Martial Law, he served as martial law administrator and oversaw the armed forces’ services.
READ: So what was so bad about martial law?
From being one of Marcos Sr.’s most trusted allies, Enrile would later break away from Marcos Sr.’s inner circle and become one of the key figures of the 1986 revolt that saw the ouster of the late dictator, driving Marcos Sr. and his family to exile in Hawaii.
In 2015, the then-91-year-old senator was charged with plunder but was later, in a hotly contested decision, allowed by the Supreme Court to post bail on the grounds of “humanitarian reasons.”
Enrile was a staunch supporter of the Marcos-Duterte tandem in the recently concluded May presidential election.
