‘Death was honorable way out for Reyes'
Posted at 02/08/2011 10:18 PM | Updated as of 02/09/2011 3:45 PM
MANILA, Philippines - The suicide of former Armed Forces Chief of Staff Angelo Reyes was his "honorable way out," University of the Philippines political scientist Dr. Clarita Carlos said.
She compared Reyes’ decision to ancient Japanese warriors committing ritual suicide when they lose honor and dignity.
"It’s 'hara-kiri.' It's the honorable way out, a combination of loss of hope, loss of self esteem, the shame factor," she said.
Carlos added that Reyes killed himself not because he was weak but because his strength gave him courage to pull the trigger.
"Suicide is chosen by a person who has guts, who has the courage to kill yourself. Secretary Reyes had a very powerful personality," she said.
Carlos worked with Reyes at the Department of National Defense in 2001.
She described the retired general as “intelligent” and “very sharp-minded.”
She believes that Reyes chose death than be put in prison, humiliated, and lose the reputation that he protected for decades.
"Kung ilalagay ko sarili ko sa kanya, it’s the threat of going to jail, hard evidence are piling up...how can anyone live for 30 more years in ignominy?"
"Maybe he thought, wala nang natitirang iota of self-redemption. There is a threat, involved sa pamilya sa asawa at sa mga anak, and he took it upon himself, siya na ang umako lahat," she added.
No change in corruption?
Carlos said the death of Reyes may not result in a complete change in the financial management system of the Armed Forces, which she believes is riddled with too much corruption that it is almost entrenched into the culture of the institution.
However, military officers who are corrupt may now think twice before conniving with other officers to pocket public funds, she said.
“Ang corruption napakalalim ng ugat, both institutional and behavioral. Iyung mga gumagawa ng katiwalian, matatakot na sila na mag-depend sa mga akala nilang loyal sa kanila,” she said, citing the revelations made by former military budget officer George Rabusa against Reyes.
“Si Rabusa, kumpare pa nga niya iyon."
Rabusa testified before the Senate that Reyes took P50 million pesos from the AFP funds as "pabaon" when he retired as Armed Forces chief of staff in 2001.
Carlos said that for corruption to end, the government must be able to put one corrupt official behind bars. "Dapat talaga may ma-preso, dapat may magbayad, kaya paulit-ulit ang korupsyon, wala kasing nagbabayad."
'Like a samurai warrior'
Members of Philippine Military Academy (PMA) Class of 1966, to which Reyes belonged, offered their condolences to his family on Tuesday.
Reyes' classmates said they were shocked and saddened by his death.
They revealed that they were supposed to meet last Sunday for a meeting to show their support for him against allegations of corruption by Rabusa.
His classmates refuse to believe the allegations against Reyes. For them, he was an honorable and brave citizen who sacrificed a lot for the country.
For Ret. Commodore Jose Agodolo, Reyes was a proud and accomplished man who valued pride, honor and dignity more than life itself.
Like Carlos, Agodolo likened Reyes to a samurai warrior who would rather commit "hara-kiri" than face humiliation.
According to Ret. Col. Manuel Espejo, Reyes was a victim of trial by publicity, as he was judged guilty without even being charged or sentenced in a court of law.
Espejo revealed that Reyes was deeply affected by the accusations that damaged his name, family and honor.
Another classmate, Ret. Brig. Gen. Fred Bautista, said Reyes sacrificed himself for the sake of the military institution.
Bautista explained that the Senate investigation destroyed the reputation not only of generals being linked to corruption but the entire military institution.
He said that the greater danger is when soldiers will no longer follow their commanders because of the generalizations being made against them.
Bautista added that the incident should be a lesson for senators to respect human rights, especially the right of a person to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. - With a report from Jay Ruiz, ABS-CBN News
Printer-friendly version
Send to friend
Share your views
One Question
"Angelo Reyes is a good reminder of the one question we should be really asking the despicable and shameless:
Why aren’t you dead yet? Bakit hindi pa kayo nagpapakamatay?"
(de Quiros PDI column 15 Feb 2011)
Hitler had the same reason for suicide
I have issues on a number of items here including taking responsibility and accountability for one's own actions. One has to learn to take the consequences of his actions and face them. No amount of contextualizing suicide can justify it spiritually or civilly. Knowing the circumstances leading to the tragic event may only allow one to understand why he might have taken away his own life but it may not render his suicide justified.
One can only lament that this suicide has not only further degraded the value of life but also made "honor" an excuse for taking it. After all, even the intelligent Hitler justified his suicide on his cultural belief that if one made a mistake, he would be able to preserve his "honor" and pride by taking the "only" recourse - suicide.
L measn Ligaw sa meaning ng Honor
On my opinion it is unfair for our Enlisted personnels to know what their officers are enjoying while for them as EP are giving the best from them to serving this country but having nothing but honor. We must look more Reyes from the previous and present AFP leadership and expose them in order to make this country be free from the bondage of corruption.
May God bless us all
“the honorable way” for killing himself. Give me a break!
There is no honor on what Angelo Reyes did. He was a well-educated criminal. He is so scared that people will find out that he is a CROOK. He is a coward for killing himself. He could have divulged all secrets and expose all the people who continue to steal from the people. I urge the people not to honor this criminal as a hero. They should also go after his family and others who stole from the people. There is no difference between these corrupt government officials living in their mansions and who are highly educated from those people in jail. I have more respect to criminals who committed their crimes to survive or to feed their hungry children than to these people who pretend to be model citizens but in fact used their position to steal. These corrupt people have a sense of entitlements.
I have been reading so many spins about this story. I was flabbergasted to see comments that he is so brave or “the honorable way” for killing himself. Give me a break! Talking about crooked sense of thinking! How can anybody praise this person who used his position to steal money? How come that people do not see the end results when people steal from the Government. Is it only me who understand that as a result of systemic corruption in the government, Filipino soldiers died in battle because of inadequate equipment, children dies for lack of basic needs, no education, no jobs, etc., etc.,etc..
This is an opportunity for the country to finally start weeding out corruptions. It will go back to business as usual if the people do not take this opportunity to go after the corrupt people in the government. BTW don’t get me wrong, most of the people who are investigating this case as also corrupt. So let them go after each other.
Why do we Filipino think like this? We are so selfish. What happen to our dignity? We encourage and support people who are corrupt as long as we benefit from them. I guess we deserve to have people like this in our government.
Honor Among Thieves - A Coward Kills Himself
You hit the nail right on the head, joemgic! Angelo Reyes is a crook and he doesn't deserve the honors that his supporters are bestowing upon him. The P50 million 'pabaon' is most likely not the only money he got from military funds. Think about the guns, ammunition, uniforms, shoes and health benefits that an ordinary soldier was deprived of because millions had to be given to a top general for retiring! I once saw a picture of a Filipino soldier in Mindanao wearing military camouflage long-sleeve uniform, but with basketball shorts and sandals!
"Every country has the government it deserves." As long as the common Filipino folk willingly participates in corruption - selling their votes, offering bribes to government employees, fixing traffic tickets, cheating on income taxes, undervaluing properties for taxation, being silent on injustice - the Philippines will always remain a third world country.
toktoktok, tao po... Ms. Horn, do not make us ignorant....
From your own lips, how come would you know? Suprised from what, so lets say you are the same spokeswomen during the Garci incident happens. I would conclude that you would know that GMA also might have talked to Garci before?
--> Arroyo's spokeswoman, Elena Bautista-Horn, meanwhile, said she was surprised by the news that Arroyo allegedly talked to Reyes before his death. <-- Suprised saan?
--> She said there was no meeting between Arroyo and Reyes in the past few days, or any conversation between the 2 over the phone. <-- Talaga lang ha...
Tama bayang binigkas mo... Or yan lang ang sinabi ni GMA sa iyo...
How come 100% as if Ms. Horn knows something, to easily say that no conversation takes place, bakit nasa iyo ba ang celphone or landline ni GMA at kailangan lagi hiramin bago siya gumawa ng calls within a day or in a 24 hours in a day?
We should know what is GMA's reason why she called Reyes, there should be an inquiry...
GMA sangkot ka nanaman, as always...
I smell something fishy, don't you Kabayans...
Honorable way out? I don't think so!
Did Angelo Reyes look at suicide as an honorable way out? In his convoluted mindset, maybe he did, but I don't think so!
What he did was the easy way out for cowards -- no honor, no self-respect! It was a purely selfish way to go, so he would not have the face the music of his own making!
Honorable? Are there honor among thieves and hooligans?
Go on and condemned those corrupt disgusting AFP Officials
Senate hearing on AFP should not be dumped JUST BECAUSE of the death of one of the accuse. Be not a weak duckling Senators. Go on and condemned those corrupt disgusting AFP Officials.
We shouldn't be drowned by the emotional weakness that a typical Pinoy inhereted from the old folks.
Broaden-up our minds, for us to see not just the dot of the whole picture of the so called 'Reyes' incident".
We should demand for DNA test and thorough investigation from US FBI.. as they are the only investigator we can trust in this type of case.
Let us dig further if it is really Reyes' or not.
Total Physical Change/Operations are easily done by most Wanted People and among others who can afford to do so.
Reyes' have billions of money and have the very reason to delete his messy present personality and build/make a new fresh persona that is unstained.
Who's on top of it?
If Garcia was allegedly protecting Reyes,it goes from bottom to top. Who was Reyes suppose to have protected then? Now that he is gone there should be no more reason to stop the investigation up to who is the last one on top. kawawa naman silang nasa ibaba na nagbabayad at maka-libre yong pasimuno.
samurai warrior?
I did not know that samurai warrior stole from the kaban ng bayan and then commit suicide rather than say sorry and return what he had stolen?
where's the dignity in that? there's code of honor in the military and reyes did not follow it. he put himself above all, before his country, his comrades, and he snubbed congress, hid the truth and tried to supress the truth.