ENRILE IN ICU DUE TO PNEUMONIA — ESTRADA

admin November 12, 2025

FORMER Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile is currently in the ICU for pneumonia and has “slim chances of surviving,” Sen. Jinggoy Estrada on Tuesday said.

“I have just received a very, very sad information, that our former colleague, former Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile is currently in the intensive care unit (ICU) of an undisclosed hospital suffering from pneumonia,” Estrada told the plenary.

According to him, he heard from a reliable source that the 101-year-old Enrile has slim chances of surviving.

Everyone in the session hall then offered a prayer for the former Senate leader.

Enrile, who was appointed as chief presidential legal counsel of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in 2022, is on medical leave since October.

He appeared frail and strapped to hospital tubes when he attended via Zoom the promulgation of his acquittal in 15 graft cases linked to the multimillion peso pork barrel scam.

Enrile served in the Cabinets of multiple Philippine presidents, including the late Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and Corazon Aquino.

Enrile also finished four senatorial terms. He served as Senate President from 2008 to 2013.

He earned his associate of arts degree cum laude from the Ateneo de Manila University while finishing his law degree cum laude from the University of the Philippines.

Enrile topped the Bar examinations with a score of 98.75 (adjusted). He later finished his education with a master of laws from Harvard University.

While serving as the defense secretary of Marcos Sr., Enrile admitted having staged his own ambush to justify the imposition of martial law in 1972. He denied this in his 2012 book, Juan Ponce Enrile: A Memoir.

He gained prominence when he later withdrew his support from Marcos Sr. and became one of the key figures in the 1986 EDSA People Power revolution that ended Marcos’ 13-year authoritarian rule.

Enrile was arrested for plunder in connection with the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scam. The Supreme Court ruled in his favor acquitting him of plunder.