Press Release
December 11, 2008

Transcript of Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile's Speech during the Testimonial Dinner Hosted by the UP College of Law, Diliman, Quezon City on December 10, 2008, 7pm.

For all the years that I've been in the government, 42 or almost 43 years, I would think that there has not been an occasion given to me such as this one; a testimonial dinner by no less than the school from where I got the education that carried me through life.

Whatever achievements or success that I have gained over the years, I owed it to the professors of this University- for training my mind and my character in this campus some fifty- eight years ago.

And so tonight, I feel elated, because for the first time my alma mater has accorded to me this recognition, after graduating in 1953.

I always wonder why my university had forgotten me. But I made an answer for myself. Perhaps, it's just that I am too much for the University of the Philippines- as Dean Marvic Leonen cited the cases where my name appeared as a respondent- and most especially during the period which is perhaps one of the most exciting and enduring period of our history where I played myself a role. I think this is what gave me notoriety that somehow brought subsistence to the University from where I was educated.

But nevertheless, I'm happy to be here tonight.

I remember that I was here in 1949. I met such luminaries as Andrea Lauria, my professor in Obligation and Contract. Then later on, I was taught by Dean Jose Espiritu, where I learned my Corporation Law; and Dean Lope Santos, who asked me to memorize the Rules of Court from cover to cover; and Lorenzo Garcia, who taught me my knowledge in Political Law; Enrique Fernando, who was my professor in Constitutional Law; Bienvenido Aguam, who taught me Torts and Damages; Ramon Aquino, who taught me Succession; Jose Abad Santos, who gave me a grade of 3. I was a candidate for magna cum laude. I went down to the level of cum laude because of him.

As I've said, whatever position, whatever honor and success I got, especially this one now that I hold, I owe it all to this University, to these men and women who taught me to be a real lawyer.

I know that my position in politics had not always been approved by the members of the alumni association of the University. I respect their views and I hope that they, too, would respect the position I've taken. I do not fault them for the judgment that they have rendered on me, in my stint during the Marcos years, especially, during the period of Martial Law.

I hope that someday they will be able to read my own account of what happened as I traveled through time in politics, and develop a better, a kinder position for Juan Ponce Enrile.

You know there are moments in life when one has to make a choice. And I've chosen a path that I really never wanted to be in.

In our class, my brother Sigma Rhoans are here, the one who had a promising career in politics was my classmate, Juan Rafael Salas from the Visayas. But somehow, and he was responsible for bringing me into politics, he was the one who recruited me to be part of the Marcos campaign staff in 1964 when he was running for a nomination as a candidate of the Nacionalista Party for president.

We thought that we would stay there only for one year. We were asking for it because the incumbent president did not want us to leave. And Paeng Salas, literally escaped in 1968 from the cabinet. He read to me his resignation before he left and said "Submit it to the President after my plane is up in the air".

So I did that. He went to the US. And he left me behind to take care of the so called Palace force that were left behind orphaned by his absence. And I stayed with them all the way through 1986.

For me to get out of the government, I literally mounted a revolution to get out of the Marcos government. But anyway that is history.

And so tonight, I would like to thank you for this testimonial dinner. For at last, this is a culmination of my career.

And this is the greatest tribute to me.

I had been confined. I held many positions. I became controversial. I saw my own University occupied by commune while I was in the government. I tried to help those that I could help from the University.

Now I'm not saying this to ingratiate myself to my audience. I'm merely stating this for a fact.

But if there is any award, and I received so many awards, in fact so many honors, I must confess to you that this night is probably one of the most touching to me at this moment.

For now I consider myself as a real alumnus of the University of the Philippines.

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