Enrile: If I don’t believe in my son, who will?

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile won’t be taking a breather when the Congress takes a break to make way for the election period starting February.

He will be out campaigning for his son, Cagayan Rep. Jack Enrile, who is running for the Senate in next year’s elections.

“I don’t think a father would abandon his son. I’m not like that,” Enrile told reporters in a news forum on Thursday.

“If I do not believe in my son, who else will believe in him? I have faith in the capability of my son, modesty aside. That is why he is my son. I trained him from the time he came into this world,” he added.

Still, Enrile said it would be up to the electorate whether the younger Enrile would be in the Senate after May 2013.

If Jack Enrile wins, they would be the first father and son to serve simultaneously in the Senate.

Mother and son, then Sen. Luisa Ejercito-Estrada and Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, once shared the Senate for three years after Estrada won his first term in 2004.

“As I told you, I do not decide the fate of my son. It’s going to be decided by the people but it’s my duty as his father to believe in him, and go out and campaign for him,” Enrile said.

Enrile said he has planned his own campaign for the candidates of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA)—a coalition forged between the Puwersa ng Masang Pilipino led by former President Joseph Estrada and the PDP-Laban headed by Vice President Jejomar Binay.