Legacy

“TIME is a great healer. Through the years, the burning flame has subsided into embers that glow bright every time they are fanned by the winds of poignant memories. We learn to live with our hurt and try to make the most of what is with us. Life must go on.” – Quote on Purificacion T. Reyes’ gravestone
While mourning the tragic loss of a life is but a human inclination, it also piques the human curiosity.
What was the prime motivation behind ex-General Angelo Reyes’ suicide?  Was it the military mindset of death before dishonor? An admission of guilt? A gnawing fear of failure? Or was it simply a means to an end, in Reyes’ case, a means to end the threats to his family?
According to retired Navy commodore Rex Robles, the ex-chief of staff felt that the “campaign to humiliate” him was irreversible and that Reyes kept repeating that there’s nothing’s he can do and that “they are determined to crush him.”  It was a mantra of helplessness, of impending doom. Reyes thought that not even the courts could put a stop to his agony.
Yet Robles did not expect his friend to resort to such a tragic end. After all, he was a decorated official with a remarkable slew of achievements under his belt – including the ouster of ex-Pres. Joseph Estrada in 2001, for whose term he became chief of staff.
His skills and expertise made him a jack-of-all-trades, shuttling different cabinet positions during the Arroyo administration: the department of defense, interior and local government, environment and natural resources and the department of energy.
His distinguished career in the military afforded him various awards, including the Philippine Legion of Honor (degree of officer), military outstanding achievement medal, seven Distinguished Service medals, and cavalier award from the PMA Alumni Association.
A 1993 top graduate of the command and staff course at the AFP Command and General Staff College, Reyes also had a master’s degree in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and an MBA from the Asian Institute of Management.  He also studied at Northwestern University in Chicago and at the Naval Post-Graduate School in Monterey, California for logistics management. He took a trust corporations management course at Ateneo Graduate School of Business with flying colors and was class valedictorian of Batch 1960 in Cubao High School.
Perhaps, this is how Reyes wanted to be remembered – as  a leader with integrity, a soldier who abided by a code of conduct, a son who made his mother proud and a father who raised his children well.
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Midweek Feb 9-11, 2011 Sec A pg. 6)