Rep. Juan “Jack” Ponce Enrile Jr. of the First District of Cagayan province said that he is not bothered by threats that his bid to follow his father’s footsteps in the Senate might be derailed over their opposing position in the controversial reproductive health bill.

“I am my father’s son but not his keeper,” the younger Enrile said in a statement, referring to his father, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile.

Jack added the public should even admire his father for sticking to his position despite his own son’s support for the RH bill and its potential to derail his son’s chances at the polls.

As further demonstration of his opposition, the Senate president last week declared that he would even risk the chances of his only son and namesake not being elected in the Senate thru the lobby of pro-RH bill supporters among the voters.

“[People should] love my father for taking a position. When he takes a position, he really protects it. That is part of his ‘belief system,’ that is part of who he is. And that is part also of being a ‘leader.’ One must be able to take the ‘punches’ and whatever the outcome might be, whether it affects him or myself,” Jack said.

In the same vein, Jack said the public can also expect that when he takes a position in any issue, he is also willing to take all the consequences to his career this would entail.

Jack, among the leading senatorial candidates of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) in next year’s midterm polls, further stressed that it is the voters, not his father’s name or influence, who would decide on whether or not he deserves to be elected senator.

“I will bring my case before the Filipino people; I will go around during the campaign period and let the people decide whether I deserve a seat in the Senate or not,” Jack stressed.

This early however, Jack expressed his “gratitude” to poll results by both the Social Weather Station (SWS) and Pulse Asia showing he would be among those to be elected in the Senate if the elections were held today.

Jack is tied with Rep. JV Ejercito Estrada of San Juan City in fourth and fifth places in the November 23 to 29 survey of Pulse Asia and at sixth place in the November 29 to December 3 survey of SWS.

“I am both gratified and humbled by the trust and confidence being showed to me by our people based on the survey results. They showed that our people has started to recognize me on my own merit and not because I am the son of a famous and well-respected statesman,” he added.