MANILA, Philippines – With a single bullet to the chest that went through his back, embattled retired Armed Forces chief and former Cabinet Secretary Angelo T. Reyes died in an apparent suicide on the gravesite of his parents at the Garden of Prayer, Loyola Memorial Park, in Marikina Tuesday, the day President Benigno S. Aquino III was celebrating his 51st birthday.
He was 65.
Sources at the memorial park said Reyes came for a visit Monday and was again at the grave site of his parents Tuesday along with his two children, a driver, and an aide.
Reyes was having a moment at his parent’s grave as the rest of the group repaired back to their parked vehicle when a shot rang out.
When Reyes’ children and aide returned to the gravesite, the retired general was found slumped on the ground his blood splattered on the tombstone of his mother Purificacion.
Police found the slug of a .45 caliber, a .45 caliber pistol, and a book titled: “Trump: The Art of the Deal” at the gravesite.
Health Secretary Enrique Ona told newsmen that Reyes was taken to the Quirino Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City on board his car shortly after but no longer had vital signs. Despite this, Ona said hospital staff tried to revive him for 45 minutes to no avail.
“Malamig na siya. Wala nang blood pressure, wala ng pulso at hindi na humihinga. (He was already cold. He had no more blood pressure, he had no pulse, and he was no longer breathing),” said Ona of Reyes when he was taken to the QMMC.
Ona said Reyes sustained a gunshot wound in the left side of his chest, near the heart.
Reyes was married on September 21, 1969 at Camp General Emilio Aguinaldo, Quezon City to Teresita Pernia Reyes. They have five children, namely Pablo, Angelito, Marc, Carlo, and Judd.
Reyes' father, Pablo Reyes was a professor like his mother, who was born on June 26, 1898.
Chief Supt. Francisco Manalo, director of the Eastern Police District, said the first report he received was that Reyes shot himself at past 7 a.m. Tuesday.
Witnesses’ accounts
This suicide angle was bolstered by the accounts of 48-year-old Loyola Memorial Park caretaker Roberto Elicanal and the park maintenance man 43-year old Louie Abelong.
Elicanal told the investigators at the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Camp Crame that he spotted five men alighting from a black Nissan Cefiro (WHD-757) before 7 a.m. Tuesday.
“I recognized that it was Reyes because I usually see him there (Loyola Memorial Park). Besides, he immediately proceeded to the area where the burial place of his parents is located,” said Elicanal, who said that he has been working at the Loyola Memorial Park for several years now.
“I think they stayed there for some 30 minutes before the incident happened. Before that incident, I saw him talking with sons near the tombstone,” he added.
The last time he saw Reyes alive, Elicanal said, was when the former appeared to be driving his two sons and two other companions away from him, one of them identified as bodyguard Cesar Abon.
“But he was not forcing them to leave him, apparently, he was just asking them to give him a little time alone,” Elicanal clarified.
He then proceeded cutting grasses at the Garden of Prayers portion of the Loyola Park (where Reyes’ parents are buried) and a few minutes of later, he said he heard a gunshot.
“It was loud, it was then that I saw Reyes’ companions rushing towards him. I saw him (Reyes) slumped near the tombstones,” said Elicanal, who said that he was some 25 meters away from Reyes.
“They immediately checked on him and it was that time that I saw blood oozing out of his chest,” he added.
Elicanal said he remembered Reyes wearing a white shirt, a black slack pants and a black leather shoes.
A few seconds later, he said that he saw Reyes being loaded inside the car before it sped off outside the Loyola Memorial Park.
“But before he was boarded to the car, I saw one of his companions, a bald man, taking what appears to be a .45 pistol. The gun is shiny,” said Elicanal.
Abelong, for his part, told the police that he was giving something to his companion when he heard a loud gunshot. When he checked, he said he spotted a man slumped near a tombstone.
Before the gunshot was heard, Abelong said he saw three of Reyes’ companions sitting on a bench located several meters away from the latter. He said the car was parked some 50 meters away from Reyes.
Both Elicanal and Abelong told the police that it was a case of suicide.
“I think he shot himself, he committed suicide,” Elicanal told the police.
“There was no one there near him, I believe he committed suicide,” said Abelong for his part.
But police officials would not comment on the case, saying they have to wait for the result of the investigation to determine whether or not Reyes committed suicide.
This was echoed by Director Nicanor Bartolome, director of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), who said that they will not initially talk about the incident as a form of respect to Reyes’ grieving family.
Reyes tour of duty as chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), from July 1999 to March 2001, is considered as an action-packed as it was during his term that the government, under President Joseph Estrada, declared an all-out war against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
A member of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) Class 1966, Reyes became a Brigade commander, a Division commander, and commanding general of the Philippine Army before he was appointed in the top military post.
He also served in the Cabinet of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as secretary o the Department of National Defense, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Department of Energy.
Reyes, however, was placed in the firing line in the past days after he was implicated in the so-called pabaon system in the military.
A gentleman to ladies
The death of Reyes, embroiled in the military fund scandal after he was implicated by former Armed Forces budget officer Lt. Col. George Rabusa, caught many by surprise, including senators and congressmen who are investigating the military corruption.
Several employees of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), where Reyes once served as its secretary, expressed shock over his death.
“He treated people fairly,” one of the DILG officials told the Manila Bulletin. “With him, it was always business. We had no close contact, but the few times I talked to him, he was always mabait (nice).”
“Hindi siya matapang. Matapang siya sa mga boys, (He was not mean. He was mean only to the boys), but he was always a gentleman to the ladies,” she added.
Mom’s boy
One thing the employees of the DILG agreed on, however, was that Reyes was a veritable mother's boy.
“He loved his mother very much. No matter what he was doing, as soon as he got a call from his mother, he would drop everything and immediately go to her,” shared an employee of the DILG.
Reyes' mother, Purificacion Tomas Reyes, was a professor born on March 6, 1910. According to the DILG employees, Reyes put his mother on a high pedestal and she was described to be the love of his life.
“Pag tanungin mo ako, hindi ako naniniwala na corrupt siya. Mabait talaga siya, (If you ask me, I do not believe that he was corrupt. He was a really nice person),” he added.
The DILG family led by Secretary Jesse M. Robredo are saddened to hear the demise of Reyes.
Reyes was DILG Secretary from July 12, 2005 to February 15, 2006.
Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, a staunch critic of Reyes, expressed shock over the incident, saying he knew Reyes as a man with strong personality having been a graduate of the Philippine Military Academy and former AFP Chief.
“It is unfortunate this happened and I did not expect this because as we all know, Gen. Reyes was PMA graduate, former AFP Chief who went through all the pressures in his life, so we are not privy to what went on his mind that prompted him to take his own life,” Trillanes said.
Trillanes and Reyes, who had been at odds ever since the former was in jail for his involvement in Oakwood mutiny, had a face-to-face meeting for the first time during the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing two weeks ago where they engaged in a brief heated exchange of words.
Probe must continue
He said, however, that Reyes’ death does not mean that the Senate investigation on the corruption in the AFP will stop.
“Sorry, but it will not put closure to investigation and we will confer with other senators and very likely, it is going to proceed despite what happened, he stressed.
Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago said that Reyes’ death virtually extinguished both his criminal and civil liabilities. “In other words, his criminal liability was totally extinguished, both as to the personal and pecuniary penalties.”
She said that technically, Reyes died with the presumption of innocence on his side, because he never went to trial.
