Enrile discusses national issues with age groups in new video

https://www.facebook.com/JuanPonceEnrile/videos/245867326342063/

MANILA, Philippines — In a recent video posted on social media, Former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile sat down to discuss the most pressing national issues with people representing various age demographics and levels of expertise.

Now seen on Facebook and YouTube, the new video has Enrile discussing — and at times debating — crucial issues and policies such as federalism, taxation, investments, and others with 5 different people ranging in age from 6 to 60 and above. His partners in the discussion included a 6-year old grade school student, pre-teens, millennials, a sitting congressman, and a legal scholar.

“(The Philippines) will become a superpower like China,” Enrile in the video can be seen assuring the 6-year old elementary student named Rosie. “We have to develop the strength to match the other countries in order to protect you and all the people like you.” Enrile explained that as a youth, he never had a car to travel in, using instead a carabao and sled, but Rosie in fact may one day travel to the moon.

Thirteen year old Rocky, an 8th grader, wanted to know more about the experiences of the 95-year old Enrile who assured him that he will see a lot of things in his lifetime but advised the young man that he must study very well and study his country. “You can help in putting up a country that is strong enough to weather all the troubles and violence that may come by. I don’t want your generation and the generation after you to suffer.”

When Rocky asked what the former senator’s vision of the ideal Philippines is, Enrile responded in the video, “I would like the Philippines to be as powerful as America, or even more powerful. And that requires all the collective work of the people of this country to make it powerful.”

Enrile added that there is no real “policeman” in the world, that each country was essentially on its own. “You must provide yourself with self-defense. Strengthen your country, make it economically strong, economically rich. Elect good leaders…that will fashion programs and policies …to make it progressive and put all the mechanisms to safeguard your freedom and your life.”

Phoebe Walker, 27 years old, asked what the future held for the Philippines particularly for the economy. “A country must develop 3 things: investment, job creation, and export,” Enrile replied in the video. “It’s about time we must open this country to investments foreign and domestic, and encourage and protect them. We must open up, just like other countries are opening up,” he added.

When asked by Walker what he thought the most pressing issue was for the country, Enrile replied that peace and order was the top priority. “Without peace and order there will be no society, industry, no happiness,” he said.

Makati Congressman of District 1 Monsour del Rosario appears next in the video and also asks about Enrile’s predictions for the future. Enrile answered that so far the country is on the “right momentum” but that it must be managed carefully. “It is very difficult to have rapid growth and then a sudden collapse,” Enrile says in the video.

Del Rosario, who is running for Vice Mayor of Makati, also asked what the future would be for local governments. Enrile related the question to the pending issue of Federalism. “While I’m open to it, I have to study it very carefully, how much it will cost, and how to set it up. I am for any change that will enhance the progress of the nation.”

Dean Amado Valdez was Enrile’s final guest, and began with a provocative question, whether Enrile considered himself a sinner of a saint. “Well, I guess I am a sinner as all humans are,” Enrile responded. “Sainthood is very difficult to attain. I have my own faults and virtues in life.”

“All my life I’ve served the country as honestly as I could,” Enrile said, adding that anyone could scour the country to find out if he had solicited or stolen money from anybody, and find nothing. “In my youth, I never envisioned anything more than to be a law practitioner, but I guess fate was not mine to control.”

At the end of the video, when Dean Valdez presses Enrile for his vision for the country, Enrile replies with simplicity and honesty. “I want a country that is stable, orderly, progressive, and with people that enjoy the freedom of law,” Enrile said. Dean Valdez then calls these “motherhood statements” and in the video seeks for some differentiation.

“My vision for the country is to for it to believe in something beyond its ability to understand and to live peacefully and secure,” Enrile responded.