Katrina Ponce Enrile talks about life after JPE

It’s interesting to see how Katrina Ponce Enrile, daughter of the late Juan Ponce Enrile (JPE), describes herself on Instagram (@ponceenrile): “Public by responsibility. Private by conviction.” She is, one might deduce, much like her father.

Her 31 December post sums up the past year, following the death of her famous/infamous father at age 103. She says, “I cannot say that 2025 has been a good year. But it has been a necessary one. It has given me life-altering lessons — hard, humbling and profound — which now fully embrace. And because of them, I step beyond this year lighter than I entered it.

“I release what no longer served me in good stead. I let go without bitterness, and I offer peace and forgiveness – not as an obligation, but as an act of freedom. As I welcome 2026, I do so unburdened in spirit, anchored in truth, and strengthened by what I survived. I walk forward with courage and quiet resolve, ready at last to live the life I have always known was meant for me.”

Many will remember how, in early November, Katrina and her family lost the man that had been many times instrumental in the life of this nation. He was, to the last day, a big presence, and one can almost imagine what the spaces he occupied feel now.

When the day came, Katrina admits it was still a shock. “We never thought my dad was gonna…of course, we knew someday he was going to pass, but this was so unexpected because he was getting better already. And all of a sudden, boom, it just happened.”

For the first few weeks, Katrina moved with purpose. “They were very hectic. We really didn’t have much time to even feel the grief because I was tasked to do the responses — you know, the responses in the Senate, in Congress, in Malacañang, the Department of Defense, even in church… You have to hold your emotions when you’re doing that,” she tells DAILY TRIBUNE Life.

“It was very surreal for me because when you’ve lived with a presence like my father’s for such a long time — and I had him 10 steps from my house, and every day we’re talking, arguing, he’s always making bilin, always doing that, or just chitchatting about whatever. And after that he’s no longer next to me…,” she recalls.

It was Katrina’s choice, she reveals, to stay with her parents and take care of them. And it was JPE who guided her on so many things. “It’s like, all of a sudden, my footing kind of got unstable.”

Katrina bares, “I am grieving, but mourning has not caught up with me yet. The mourning is the outward expression of the grief. The grief is there — the missing, the yearning, the sadness — but the mourning is the outward expression of that, like you cry… and I have not been able to do that yet.”

Now that she has to be the strong one for the family, Katrina is aware that she has “big shoes to fill.”

Not that she has ever been known not to be strong in her own right. Feisty, even. But not many are privy to the father-daughter bond, which she says is something she terribly misses. Before, she recalls, “If I don’t see him, he will call me. It’s his calls. Even if I go up to Cagayan, along the way he will call me three or four or five times on the trip. It’s his calls, his voice, his wisdom that I miss. His strength, you know. Now I’m the one who has to be strong for all of them…” Her mother, Cristina, now has onset Alzheimer’s.

Wisdom of years

Asked what stays in her mind now that he is gone, Katrina says, “He always told me if it’s not for you, hindi para sayo ‘yan (then it’s not for you). In other words, don’t fret about it. What is meant for you will be for you.

“And then he would always say, be humble and treat people well. Because, you know, given his background — he came from humble beginnings and he wasn’t treated very well — he always carried that. It’s these little nuggets of things that my dad would just blurt out sometimes that I miss. Even when we’re arguing — you listen to me, no you listen to me,” she laughs, trailing off. “I miss our time together.”

Yet for all these, Katrina remains focused on her responsibilities. As head of the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA), she is determined to help bring development to her province. Taking the helm as Administrator and CEO of CEZA on 7 June 2023, Katrina has been able to direct the agency toward her dream of “future-proofing CEZA.”

Achieving this, according to reports, takes “restructuring the organization, boosting support facilities and attract investment.”

Still, she says, “Reality always sets in at some point. You have ideals, and then reality sets in. Unlike other freeport zones, we are among the least developed ones because we are [the] furthest away from Metro Manila. We’re not the lucky ones unlike Subic and Clark with structures already in place. So, we have to fight for the budget. And given the conditions that the country is in, we have to make do with whatever creative ways we can think of.”

Mind at work

“I’m a very creative person. I like to create. My mind is always going. That’s the thing that my dad loved about me. If he throws me a problem, I have the solution. As much as possible, if there’s any problem, I can find solutions to it. You can throw me anywhere, and I’ll be able to figure things out. Coz I’m a survivor, you know,” Katrina says.

That’s the problem, yeah, that’s it! I don’t know how to turn my mind off. So I’m always thinking, even when I’m in the hospital, I’m always thinking of all these crazy inventions. If I could just really put them into reality…you know. That is one of my problems, sleep,” she laughs.

CEZA is a challenge Katrina has taken on with gusto, even as she manages her businesses and that of her family’s, and even with “70 dogs and 100 birds.”

“That’s true, yeah. I have animals, half here and half in Cagayan,” admits Katrina, some of whose dogs have recently competed and won in dog shows. “I’ve always had animals since I was a kid. You name it, I had it – guinea pigs, rabbits, cats, dogs, horses.” At one point, she laughs, she even had goats that she named Ethel and Earl. “I name all of them, I get really attached to animals. I even have carabaos, Magnolia and Kublai.”

Simplicity

Clearly, Katrina devotes herself to what matters — her family, her pets, her passions and her work. The outward expressions of her success do not matter as much. “(Dad) always said, ‘Katrina how much stuff do you need, really? Riches, you cannot take with you. You leave them behind. And other people are gonna enjoy them for you. Live simply.’

“If anybody really knew Juan Ponce Enrile, they would actually know that he lived a really simple life. Small home, just wearing the same clothes practically every day, doing Facebook. And people are asking us if that’s my Dad answering them. And we would say, ‘What did he say?’ and we would know if that is really him,” she says. “People who have tasted fame, fortune, power, they kind of lose the ‘common touch.’ But my dad, I guess you can take the boy out of Cagayan, but you can never really take Cagayan out of the boy. He always held on to his very simplistic ways.”

Musing, she adds, “I am very much like my Dad, but I am trying to be more like him.”

Katrina explains that in a world bombarded by social media, it can be difficult to live simply. “Even things we don’t need, we buy. Those are the things my dad wanted to pass on to the next generation. We are living too much in a material world. We are losing our spirituality. It’s what makes us diverge. We should think of things that keep us together rather than pull us apart,” she says.

In a post on 13 December 2025, one month after JPE passed away, Katrina revealed how her dad had purposely made her go through hardship so she would know how to cope with it.

A message from JPE, perhaps from a family chat, was sent to her by her daughter. It went like this: “Thank you, Katrina. You are my only daughter, and you are very dear to me. But all the years while you were growing to maturity, I did not pamper you with an easy life. Although my heart ached, I purposely wanted to make you go through a difficult life so that you would learn that the real world is a cruel world. I wanted to harden your character. I wanted to make you a strong person and be self-reliant. I wanted you to depend on no one else but yourself. I wanted you to be able to stand alone, and suffer any pain along the way. I did. I am glad that my plan bore fruit and produced what you are today. If I die today or tomorrow or anytime soon, I am confident that you can take care of yourself and your children without me. As the poet said, ‘Trust no future, however pleasant.’”

In the caption, Katrina writes: “My daughter @krisponceenrile sent me this — a gentle reminder that my dad had long been preparing my heart for the day we would have to part. However strong he tried to make me, however much he guided me to understand that this moment would come, nothing could soften the depth of the grief that followed his passing.

“What I am learning now is that grief and mourning are not the same. We often think they are interchangeable, but they are not. Grief lives quietly inside of us – the ache, the memories, the longing that stirs in silence. Mourning is what the world sees – the outward expression of sorrow that has not yet fully taken shape.

“My grief continues to unfold, slowly and deeply. My mourning…that will come when my heart is ready to speak what it feels,” she ends.