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In his lifetime, Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, who turned 91 this year, has been imprisoned a grand total of four times — the latest one being his stint at the Philippine National Police (PNP) General Hospital in Camp Crame, Quezon City for his alleged involvement in the PHP10-billion pork barrel scam.
It may be recalled that Enrile had surrendered to the Sandiganbayan in Jul 2014. After a little over a year, his motion for bail was granted. He paid PHP1.45 million bail — PHP1 million for plunder and PHP450,000 for the 15 counts of graft filed against him over the multibillion-peso pork barrel scam.
“Enrile, a wartime guerrilla, was imprisoned during the Japanese Occupation of the country. In 1990, he was put to jail on charges of rebellion for the 1989 coup attempt against then President Corazon Aquino. In 2001, he was in prison again in connection with the attempt by supporters of President Joseph Estrada to storm Malacañang to protest his ouster,” reports Ryan Chua on ABS-CBNnews.com.
When asked to compare his prison stints, Enrile told reporters: “I’m used to this. I’ve been incarcerated four times already, once by enemies of our country. That is really hell. This time, it’s like heaven compared to what I went through.”
Enrile explained that this time around he spent most of his time reading and writing while in detention.
The report noted: “Enrile said he wrote a narrative about his experiences in detention, but refused to give details about it. Enrile could not yet say if he would release another book.”
The senator only stated, “I cannot tell you. That is all my property. I will leave it to my daughter. It’s up to her to decide whether she wants it publicly known or to condemn it or throw it to the waste basket.”
In 2012, Enrile released a memoir of more than 700 pages.
