FILE PHOTO: Former senator Juan Ponce Enrile and former congressman Mike Defensor (right). INQUIRER FILES
MANILA, Philippines — Chief presidential legal counsel Juan Ponce Enrile on Wednesday called out former Rep. Mike Defensor for his presence at an alleged official event of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA).
In a Facebook post, Enrile mentioned a photo where Defensor is supposedly seen at an “official function of the [MMDA] that was published in social media.”
“What was Mike Defensor doing in that picture…” he noted. “Was he an official, a consultant, an adviser, a factotum of some sort of MMDA? He was a candidate and loser in the last election, wasn’t he? What was he in that picture? The boss of MMDA? Is that now a proper decorum in our current political world?”
“I suggest we should be very careful in not carelessly showing an arrogance of power in our behavior as public persons, especially if we are somewhat identified with the current regime,” he added.
Enrile issued in a follow-up Facebook post a warning that as legal counsel of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., he has “a legal and moral duty to protect him from those who tend to take undue advantage of his kindness and their seeming closeness to him.”
“Please! Masyado naman kayo. Huwag naman. (You are all too much. Please don’t.) If you continue with that practice, I assure you, you will be clashing with my office,” he added.
It was not clear where Enrile saw the photo, but INQUIRER.net contacted the MMDA for a comment regarding this issue. However, the MMDA has yet to respond to this reporter’s query as of posting time.
To recall, Defensor ran for mayor in Quezon City in the May polls but lost by a wide margin – more than 230,000 votes – to reelectionist Mayor Joy Belmonte.