Angelo Reyes is dead.
Former Sec. Angelo Reyes commits Suicide
Ex-Energy Chief shoots self in front of mother’s grave, dies at Quirino Hospital
By MANILA BULLETIN ONLINE
February 8, 2011, 9:03am
MANILA, Philippines – Former Energy Chief Angelo Reyes was reportedly shot in the chest. Reyes was rushed to the Quirino Hospital in Quezon City and reports have it that he died at around 8:30 a.m. He was 66. He is survived by his wife and 5 children.
UPDATE: Reyes was reported to have committed suicide. According to the EPD, Reyes visited his mother’s grave at the Loyola Memorial Park in Marikina City where he shot himself on the spot.
A preliminary showed that Reyes had bullet wound in the heart.
As per the Quirino Hospital sources, they tried to revive Reyes for 45 minutes before declaring him as expired.
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Without restitution this gesture, though huge and appealing to the romantic sense, is empty.
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February 8th, 2011 at 12:54
I find it disturbing that the news did not evoke any kind of emotion from me..
February 8th, 2011 at 13:20
that.is.just.lame.
he might as well admit to everything he is accused of and went on with his life with his family.
then again, i dont know him. his career might be his life.his career might be his family.
maybe.
maybe he is laughing his ass off on the other side.
maybe.
February 8th, 2011 at 13:43
And it so happens that today is PNoy’s birthday. If his life were a gift to Pnoy, the truth over the military scam would have been better a gift for all the PINOYS out there…
February 8th, 2011 at 13:53
not to be considered hara kiri..
February 8th, 2011 at 14:05
ang galing magtago ni bulilit, hindi ko siya mahanap..
February 8th, 2011 at 14:22
I cannot believe I woke up to this news. It’s so surreal O_O
February 8th, 2011 at 17:02
I feel compassion, and yet, I also feel cheated. If the allegations were true, and since we can only speculate on what’s in store for him in the afterlife (if there is an after life), I think the honest, ordinary, Filipino soldier who’s putting his life on the line would see it as plain cowardice. This leaves his family to deal with the disgrace, alone. If his family’s also guilty with the charges, then the pursuit for truth and justice should continue.
February 8th, 2011 at 20:05
There was bloodshed on his mother’s grave marker. What was the point again?
February 8th, 2011 at 22:32
@#4atomic_bum
Agree on that. this should not be referred to as harakiri or seppuku. To be described as such requires honor, I find nothing honorable in that.
I feel sorry for his family and I feel sorry for him.
February 8th, 2011 at 23:45
what a coward…
February 9th, 2011 at 06:35
sorry this is a bit long.
i don’ mean to disagree with anybody, but i don’t feel sorry for him and his family. i fell sorry for the country.
angelo reyes is accused of helping himself to public fund. his instinctive reaction during the senate investigation was to ask if he had been overly greedy, not vehemently deny any wrongdoing. the senate hearings revealed later angelo reyes might have taken “only” 50 million, compared to others who might have taken more than 100 million. that’s pinoy morality for you, to think of yourself as a good person because you stole less than others did. so much for being the only christian country in asia. (why exactly are we proud to be the only christian country in asia? what does that say about our attitudes towards muslims and buddhists? more importantly, how christian are we, really, the country that ranks first or second as the most corrupt in asia?)
now he has killed himself. does that mean he is innocent and he couldn’t stand these “false” accusations so he had to kill himself? that’s not the reaction of a soldier. a soldier would have kept fighting, he was trained to react so, especially if he believed he is fighting for what is right. or does this mean he felt ashamed, because he had tried to cultivate this image of righteousness and was exposed to be not so righteous?
these are complex psychological and moral issues. we as a nation must resolve this. i would rather not think we suffer from some kind of moral rot, but what do we make of the fact we are governed by highway robbers.
February 9th, 2011 at 07:58
Not hara kiri, but “hindi keri” (I read that on Facebook)
February 9th, 2011 at 21:59
I. Am. Sorry.
February 9th, 2011 at 23:04
even his last word/s speak of his loyalty to his master..here, loyalty is not with honor..
February 10th, 2011 at 12:48
I find it fairly difficult to have Angelo Reyes as well but it is worthwhile to ask ourselves that in the same situation would we have done any different? In a situation where corruption has become so institutionalized that literally just about everyone on the take even staying quiet but not taking any money presents a risk to your career, to your life, to your family. In a group where everyone is dirty anyone who stays ‘clean’ is automatically suspect, so how many of us have the strength to be say, a heidi mendoza, with your young son asking you if you love them why did you do this to them? And trade your life, whether literally or metaphorically, for what again exactly? A country that will move on and forget you after the initial wave of media celebration? For an incremental decrease of evil in a country so shot through with a systematic effort to corrupt and compromise every single institution? Your children can go with much much less, your career can hit a roadblock, you can suffer the resentful stares of your wife because you love your dignity and integrity so much that you refuse to participate in a system that has been in place for 5, 10, 100, 400 years? The effort while noble seems rather quixotic and insane.
To be good in an evil system requires an exerted, conscious effort of self-sacrifice, possibly an enormous amount of self-sacrifice that just may be too much to ask of a reasonable person. To do the right thing in such a situation requires a certain insane level of disregard for one’s own well-being. While the country needs many many more Heidi Mendozas, we may all be too quick to point and say we are definitely not Angelo Reyeses. When the test comes and you weigh each side it’s pretty difficult to definitively say on which side you will come out.
February 10th, 2011 at 12:49
woops should have been any sympathy for angelo reyes.
February 10th, 2011 at 14:09
On the morbidly bright side, it is refreshing to see a political figure possessing some semblance of shame.
February 10th, 2011 at 19:06
I can’t guess why Angelo Reyes decided to commit suicide, but it is simply appalling how people easily make the suicide-means-guilt judgement.
Compared to almost everybody else in Philippine government, including Jinggoy Estrada and Antonio Trillanes, Angelo Reyes should be declared a modern hero.
Twenty years after graduating in 1966 among the Top Ten from the Philippine Military Academy, Angelo Reyes was languishing as a desk colonel at the Armed Forces Retirement Service and Benefits System. He made the right decision to support Ramos and defect from the Marcos government during the Philippine People Power Revolution of 1986.
This propelled him from career limbo to become AFP Chief of Staff in 2000. In 2001, he again made the right decision, this time to support the ouster of Estrada.
Without the support of the military, EDSA 2 would have failed. As the leader of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Angelo Reyes could have seized power for himself and held it indefinitely; instead he promptly supported a new civilian leader, an unprecedented move in Asia, if not in the entire world.
February 10th, 2011 at 20:28
I was shocked by the news and actually felt sorry for him and his family.
I also agree that the truth on the alleged malversation of armed forces fund must be uncovered and the guilty be convicted, because I also feel for the regular foot soldiers and their families.