MANILA, Philippines —  One of the country’s most eminent lawyers, Estelito Mendoza, died yesterday at age 95.

Mendoza, who won several landmark cases in court and was dubbed the “super lawyer,” served as solicitor general under the elder Ferdinand Marcos from 1972 to 1986.

Among the last cases he handled was the petition for certiorari filed by Vice President Sara Duterte with the Supreme Court over the P125 million in confidential funds that her office received in 2022.

Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile mourned the passing of his “very good and best friend,” veteran lawyer Estelito Mendoza.

“Today, I lost a very, very dear friend, the complete, brilliant, luminary lawyer, Estelito ‘Titong’ Mendoza. For me, he was one of the best, if not the best, lawyer I have encountered and worked with,” the 101-year-old Enrile said in a Facebook post yesterday.

“May he find eternal peace with God in heaven. A very good man has passed away,” he said.

Enrile extended his condolences to Mendoza’s wife, Rosy, and his family. Enrile was the godfather to one of Mendoza’s daughters.

According to Enrile, Mendoza was his senior at the University of the Philippines Law School.

“Goodbye Titong – my very good and best friend,” Enrile said.

High-profile clients of the former solicitor general during the time of the late president Ferdinand Marcos Sr. included not just past presidents like Joseph Estrada and fellow cabalen Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, but also alleged cronies of past administrations.

Unofficially, Arroyo had been consulting Mendoza in Malacañang – mostly on national policy matters – when she was president for nine years until 2010. He didn’t represent her though when the late president Noynoy Aquino indicted her with plunder and electoral sabotage, non-bailable offenses.

For a very long time, Mendoza served on the board of directors of conglomerate San Miguel Corp. under the leadership of the late ambassador Eduardo Cojuangco – a known crony of Marcos Sr. – who trusted him so much that his role was not just on the cases against him.

Mendoza also represented the late Manila congressman Mark Jimenez – a crony of Estrada’s – whom he represented in the latter’s fight to block his extradition to the US where he was accused of making unlawful campaign contribution to Clinton’s presidency – in the early 2000s.

Jimenez initially won the case through Mendoza’s help, but the latter’s UP Law classmate in Batch 1952 – where legal eagles like Joker Arroyo and many others belong – former justice secretary Serafin Cuevas, managed to have this reversed on appeal, resulting in Jimenez’s extradition.

At one point after he lost in the oral arguments, where the Supreme Court was then led by retired chief justice Hilario Davide Jr., the topnotch lawyer – the most sought-after defense lawyer among the rich and influential – joked that most of the 15 justices were his students in UP Law.

“Yes, we all agree. But you should be proud because it means you are a very good law professor because they are all here in the tribunal. Your students are now all SC justices,” Davide joked back, drawing laughter from among the crowd, including Cuevas, who beat Mendoza in the Jimenez case.

Ironically, Jimenez’s case eventually resulted in the removal of Cuevas from the Estrada cabinet. Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile mournedthe passing of Mendoza.

“Today, I lost a very, very dear friend, the complete, brilliant, luminary lawyer, Estelito ‘Titong’ Mendoza . F o r me, he was one of the best, if not the best, law- yer I have en-

countered and worked with,” the 101-year- old Enrile said on Facebook. – Delon Porcalla