Naga topnotch lawyer
gets Malacañang post
By By Daniel P. Aureus

ANOTHER Bicolano, a Nagueño at that, has come close to the corridors of power, in Maalacanang, no less.

2000 Bar topnotcher Edwin R. Enrile, 29, of Naga City  last month took his oath

of office before President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as undersecretary in the Office of the President.

Unknown to his fellow Bicolanos, the young Enrile was first recruited by then Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo as director in the office of the Executive Secretary, promoted to become Assistant Executive Secretary, and now, as undersecretary detailed at the highest office of the land.
 

BICOLANO UNDERSECRETARY. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo congratulates(from left to right) Atty. Edwin Enrile’s parents, Wiliam Sr., Nelly, and sister Caroline, brother William Jr., and sister Caroline after the oathtaking by Edwin (beside GMA) as undersecretary assigned at the Office of the President.

Before his stint in Malacanang, Enrile had been into private law practice after passing the Bar as topnotcher.

His father, Naga businessman William Enrile, Sr., also a lawyer by profession, told Bicol Mail that his son has no immediate plan to enter into politics. “He is still planning to finish his study in the US when he would have chance to leave his present tasks in Malacanang,” the father said.

The young Enrile finished his management economics degree at the Ateneo de Manila, magna cum laude. He pursued his law studies at the same university, graduating at the top of his class as summa cum laude. The topped the Bar in 2000.

The Enriles own several major business enterprises in the city, including the kaolin plant in Abella Street, the only one of its kind in the country, and the soon-to-be-constructed shopping mall with level parking at the old Philtranco site along Elias Angeles and Peñafrancia streets here, at the back of MetroBank and KFC.

He was sworn into his present post by the President last August 12, 2004 with his father, mother Nelly, brother WilliamJr., and sisters Caroline and Catherine witnessing the rites in Malacanang.