watching the surrender of enrile on tv was kind of surreal, as in, really?  it’s happening?  now na?  wow!

for a while there, when jinggoy’s arrest was not quickly followed by enrile’s, i remarked on facebook that his lawyer estelito mendoza was probably trying out every legal gimmick, every trick in the book, to stop the sandiganbayan from ruling on probable cause.  i could imagine all the wheeling and dealing going on behind the scenes, favors being called even, all to no avail, it now would seem, except for a few days’ delay.  wow!

this is nothing like the arrests for “rebellion” in 1990 and 2001 that, in both cases, alleged enrile to be on power-grab mode; both times he was out in a matter of days.  this one is for plunder, some 172 million in alleged PDAF kickbacks 2007 to 2009, which he denies, of course, he will prove his innocence in court, and maybe he will, but meanwhile he is under arrest and detention.

in fairness, it was a relief that his surrender was without the showbiz dramatics that attended the last hurrahs of estrada jr. and revilla jr., two clowns who quite likely entertained the illusion that the millions who voted for them would gather in protest as erap’s masses did when he was arrested in 2001.  enrile, it would seem, had no such illusion, even if he was the original EDSA hero.  no presscon, no statement, hardly any photos or video of him, and no mugshots released.

nakakapagpaisip.  i’m sorry it’s happening now, when he’s old and ailing, but, again, wow, quite a big fish he is, and i have been backtracking: paano na nga nangyari ito?  let’s give credit where credit is due.  o nasabit lang ba kay napoles at sa inquirer scoop of benhur luy’s records?

but wait, speaking of the inquirer, suddenly i remember someone saying something about the broadsheet in connection with enrile’s case, and i google it, and, hey hey hey, straight from an official statement by gigi reyes, issued from the states in sept 2013.

The PDI evidently has an ax to grind against me. I say so because in a private dinner in Rockwell a few months back where I accompanied my former boss, Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, PDI Editor-in-Chief Mrs. Letty Jimenez Magsanoc openly told us about her deep personal hurt over the Senator’s published “Memoirs” which recounted the beginnings of the PDI and what she called the “unfair” portrayal of Ms. Eugenia “Eggie” Apostol.

it was just a few months after the corona impeachment trial when enrile launched A Memoir (september 2012).  at totoo naman na grabe ang ginawang panlalait ni enrile kay eggie.  i thought she could have taken him to court for libel atbp. and oh what an alta siyudad media scandal that would have been, who might the rest of media have sided with kaya, ano?  magsanoc was smarter than that, of course.  maaaring the inquirer had inside info on the nbi’s or coa’s investigations of napoles, maaring they got wind of benhur luy’s records, and it would be interesting to know if benhur’s parents offered the inquirer the info out of the blue, or if it was the inquirer that initiated the contact by sending feelers.  how powerful can media get?

whatever, is that cackling i hear from the eggie side of makati?  enrile’s editor and publisher should have warned him about women scorned: hell hath no fury, and all that jazz.