Enrile in Prison--the ‘Suite’ Life for Once-Feared Jailer : Philippines: ‘Let’s get a drink,’ he shouts to reporters from his ‘cell.’ His lawyer will try to win his release today.

Once he jailed thousands under a brutal dictatorship, but alleged coup conspirator Juan Ponce Enrile had it somewhat easier when he was imprisoned Wednesday: a two-room suite complete with white curtains, humming air conditioners and an aide carrying his garment bag and a favorite throw rug.

“Let’s get a drink!” the flamboyant former defense secretary shouted to reporters after blowing kisses and throwing thumbs-up gestures from the unbarred windows of his second-floor “cell” at the Camp Karingal police headquarters in suburban Quezon City.

The day before, Enrile was charged with supporting a failed coup last December that nearly overthrew President Corazon Aquino and left at least 113 dead. In a nation where the rich and powerful rarely go to jail, his kid-gloves detention was hardly unusual.

Enrile, the sole opposition member of the Philippine Senate, is the most prominent figure charged in any of the six military mutinies since Aquino took office in 1986. But, while government officials insisted that the 66-year-old Enrile would be treated as any other criminal defendant, the maverick politician and businessman clearly is a prisoner like no other.

He held a lengthy press conference after his arrest, met with opposition leader and Vice President Salvador H. Laurel and then slept in the private office bedroom of National Bureau of Investigation Director Alfredo Lim. Enrile’s 29-year-old daughter, Katrina, also spent the night there.

“I gave him the comforts of my humble quarters,” Lim explained.

Reporters mobbed the office for another press conference early Wednesday. When Enrile was finally driven to Camp Karingal at 11 a.m., he appeared to weep as scores of supporters outside cheered and shouted, “God bless you!”

Later, after another packed press conference at the police headquarters, Enrile was joined in his confinement by family members and friends carrying baskets of food. “There’s a festival atmosphere,” said his lawyer, Renato Cayetano.

Cayetano, who has 37 attorneys working on the case, said the Supreme Court will meet this morning to consider a writ of habeas corpus. Enrile is being held without bail on a charge of “rebellion with murder,” which carries a maximum life sentence.

“We want to set him free on the grounds that his constitutional rights were violated, since the crime that he was charged with does not exist in our statute books,” Cayetano said. “Therefore his arrest and his detention are illegal.”

According to court documents, the government’s case is based on statements by witnesses who said they saw Enrile meeting coup leaders on the first two days of the Dec. 1-9 uprising. Prosecutors say this proves that Enrile supported the mutiny and is criminally liable for the deaths of noncombatants.

In his petition, however, Cayetano said the Supreme Court had ruled in 1956 that murder committed in connection with a coup should be lumped together with other acts as “rebellion,” a bailable offense carrying a maximum punishment of six to 12 years in prison.

Fearing that Enrile’s arrest could spark what a spokesman called “reprisals,” the military has gone on maximum alert.

Enrile was defense secretary for 17 years under former President Ferdinand E. Marcos and was widely feared as martial-law administrator from 1972 until 1981. Thousands of political opponents, journalists, businessmen and others were jailed without charges, and many of them were reportedly tortured.

The longest-held prisoner was Aquino’s late husband, Benigno S. Aquino Jr., Marcos’ main political opponent, who was assassinated on Aug. 21, 1983.

Enrile broke with Marcos in February, 1986, and helped lead a Manila-based military mutiny that triggered the “people power” civilian uprising that ousted Marcos and swept Corazon Aquino to power. Aquino initially named Enrile as her defense chief but fired him in November, 1986, after he was implicated in a coup plot.

Elected to the Senate the next year, Enrile became Aquino’s sharpest public critic. Last week, he accused her daughter, Maria Aquino Cruz, of improper involvement in a government plan to sell property in Tokyo and issued a public “apology” for having helped Aquino win office.

Enrile’s supporters Wednesday accused the president of trying to stifle dissent, and a spokesman for the mutinous soldiers who launched the December coup attempt warned that the Philippines should “brace itself for the imminent declaration of martial law.”

Aquino spokesman Tomas Gomez denied that any such move is planned and criticized the “ridiculous attempt to portray Enrile as a martyr.”

“It is indeed ironic that Enrile, the architect, administrator and enforcer of martial law, shall now bellyache,” Gomez said. “His arrest was conducted under the rule of law and with due process, guarantees of the very same constitution he has attempted to destroy.”

Despite improvements under Aquino, Philippine courts are notoriously slow, with cases often languishing for years. Corruption appears endemic. In a recent interview, a former attorney for a prominent Manila law firm said his firm had kept judges on the payroll, paying a $2,500 bonus for favorable rulings.

Whatever happens in court, Enrile appears to have acquired a sizable soapbox as a result of his arrest. He is expected to run for president in 1992, although recent polls show that he has little popular support. That support may grow now that he has become Aquino’s most celebrated prisoner.

“I think I’m going to enjoy my stay here,” Enrile told reporters with a grin before entering his new detention quarters.