The Humble Roots of Manong Johnny

By Jameliz -
I have always been interested to know more about the son-meets-father-19-years-later kind of life story of Juanito Furruganan, A.K.A. Juan Ponce-Enrile, the Senate President of the Philippines. Wikipedia doesn't have it but the link that I found does (see below).

This is perhaps the most complete write-up I can find. Actually, I think it's the only one that exists online. And now that I'm looking at it again, I think it's an excerpt from the book entitled "Make My Day" by Hilarion M. Henares, Jr.



This is an excerpt from that excerpt:

   "In a small barrio in the sleepy coastal town of Gonzaga in the province of Cagayan, he was born and baptized Juanito Furruganan, son of a peasant woman called Petra Furruganan.
     Juanito went to Aparri for his high school. He was good in math, wanted to be a scientist, and earned extra money by tutoring the daughter of one of the richest men in town. Rich bullies, consumed by jealousy, beat him up within an inch of his life.
     He complained to the authorities who advised him to forget the incident, or get thrown out of town. He felt outraged and betrayed; and it was this sense of injustice that induced him to abandon science and take up law. He had not met his father who in turn did not even know he existed. Juanito decided to go to Manila and confront his father. To raise the transportation money, he worked as a road construction laborer and a fisherman. Finally at the age of 19, he came to Manila.
     I knew his father, one of the best corporate lawyers of his day, Don Alfonso Ponce Enrile. He came to the house one day with his son Chito, and asked me to help get his son into MIT where I was then recently graduated. He was a good friend of President Manuel L. Quezon who induced him to run and serve as Assemblyman in the province of Cagayan. It was in one of his campaign sorties that he met Petra Furruganan."                                             *   *   *      
     "One look at Juanito Furruganan and Don Alfonso Ponce Enrile knew this was his son. He is the spitting image of his father, he has the same broad toothy smile, lined cheeks, rough-hewn Castilian features, and most of all an unruly lock of hair that kept falling down his brow, and another that kept standing up at the back of his head.
     He was a chip off the old block if there ever was one, and Don Alfonso, a gentle person ever a gentleman, took him in as his son, made him work in the law firm, and sent him to the best schools....
Read more from Philippine Folio >>
    

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