Ronaldo Puno was “malakas” with Fidel Ramos, Joseph Estrada, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and in part with Ferdinand Marcos. Miriam Defensor-Santiago was malakas with Cory Aquino, Estrada and Arroyo. That’s chicken. Juan Ponce Enrile was malakas with Aquino, Ramos, Estrada, Arroyo, and above all Marcos.

Who is Juan Ponce Enrile and how did he manage that feat? Well, the highlights of his long and seemingly unending career include:

He is the one person who triggered Martial Law by claiming an attempt on his life. Later, during Cory’s time, he admitted lying about it. But still later, he would deny ever having made that confession despite the fact that the world had heard it, compounding one lie with another lie. That alone would have qualified him to be a dependable ally of Arroyo.

He is the one person who claimed to have mounted EDSA People Power I in 1986 and to have rescued this country from Marcos. It didn’t sit well with a people who could not believe he would be so confused about who rescued whom. He was just the “tuta” who lost out to the mongrel Fabian Ver, and who rebelled against his boss as a result of it.

His boys at RAM mounted one coup after another against Aquino, and failed. His boys ended up in jail, spending no small amount of time ruing their sins. He remained free, confined only to ruing lost time.

He is the one person who, along with Santiago and Estrada’s boys at the Senate, defended their master with every trick in the book, to no avail. Later, Enrile (and Santiago) would take turns goading Estrada’s legions to “sugod, sugod” (attack, attack) Malacañang, which those legions did. Several people died in the riots there, at Mendiola. Unfortunately, they did not include Enrile or Santiago. Again, Enrile (and Santiago) would remain free, confined only to ruing lost time.

Not for long. For before you could blink an eye or say “one Ponce Enrile,” he (and Santiago) was lovey-dovey with the person he wanted “sugod-sugod-ed” at Palace by the Pasig.

He is the one person, who still along with Santiago but also now with Joker Arroyo, sought to discredit Jun Lozada, finding nothing wrong with a project that wasn’t just full of “bukol” (bulges – a street lingo for overpricing) but of malignant tumors. Indeed finding nothing wrong with the way Lozada was met and “escorted” by armed men and driven around, his fate hanging in the balance. Well, he had seen worse as executor of martial law.

He is the one person who can be counted upon to thwart the Joc-Joc Bolante hearing, endorse Charter change, and keep Arroyo in power after 2010. Since he can no longer be king himself at 84, he will be a queen-maker, or a queen-retainer. Along with Prospero Nograles, he will have Arroyo controlling both houses of Congress.

He is the president of the Senate today. And he is back home, the right-hand man once again of another Marcos. — (Inquirer News Service)