Chief presidential legal counsel Juan Ponce Enrile has warned allies of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. to stop the practice of taking advantage of the chief executive's kindness or else they will clash.
Enrile went on a vent spree on social media on Wednesday, Aug. 10, including a lecture intended for the President's allies to behave accordingly as public persons under the current regime.
If they continue to do so, Enrile said, they will clash.
"Being the Legal Counsel of the President, I think I have 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're being too much. Please don't do it)," Enrile said in a Facebook post.
"If you continue with that practice, I assure you, you will be clashing with my office. Stop it!" he added.
Enrile said this after questioning the presence of Mike Defensor in an official event of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA).
"If you are authorized by the President, say so, and I will abide by the decision of the President. Otherwise, we will clash," he further said.
Enrile also pointed out that "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. Please ladies and gentlemen be careful! The public is watching."
In a separate Facebook post, the presidential lawyer also issued an "unsolicited advice" for national security officials to instead sharpen their intelligence information rather than making soft remarks.
This as he revealed that he has obtained information that there are groups planning to cause "serious trouble" for Marcos.
"Instead of making soft and pacific statements seemingly intended to quiet and to gain the cooperation, trust, and confidence of the habitual troublemakers in this country, I suggest that they should sharpen their intelligence information," Enrile said.
"I just picked up what I consider to be a credible information that there are groups in America and in the Philippines planning and preparing to cause serious embarrassment and trouble for our newly elected President. I will give the details of this information to the proper official of the new regime in due time," he said.
"Caution is the name of the game. You are just starting your travel in troubled waters. Your adversaries have not stopped. To borrow a phrase from someone, right now 'they are hiding their brightness and biding their time'," he added.