MANILA, Philippines—“Former Secretary Angelo Reyes just inherited a [rotten] system and he wasn’t greedy,” said retired commodore Rex Robles in an interview on Tuesday with anchor Ramon Tulfo on his top-rating public service show “Isumbong Mo Kay Tulfo” on DZIQ 990 AM Radyo Inquirer.
Robles was one of the closest friends of Reyes, who took his life Tuesday morning amid the on-going investigation by the Senate on the AFP fund mess.
Their friendship goes way back to the Philippine Military Academy where Robles belonged to the PMA Class ’65. Reyes graduated the following year.
Robles recalled: “The first squad leader of plebeian Angelo Reyes was Rex Robles, that’s me. His first shout, his first beating, his push-up, even his first cry in the PMA, all came from me.”
Asked by Tulfo how Reyes was as a cadet, Robles said, “He was very strong spirited. If there’s something he didn’t like in what you did, he will talk to you face to face.”
Robles remembered how good Reyes was as a PMA student, being cited as “Best Debater” and a sharpshooter. Reyes also received top honors while taking up his post-graduate studies in Harvard University and the Asian Institute of Management.
Robles recalled how efficient Reyes was when he was already holding cabinet positions in the government. While others took weeks to decide, Reyes can arrive at a sound decision in a day.
“Because he was a multi-tasker,” Tulfo said in agreement.
Reyes looked like a very serious, stiff military man in person but Robles said his friend had a very good sense of humor and knew how to have fun. He recalled how in one occasion, he and singer-comedian Rico Puno exchanged jokes on stage for an hour, just like how stand-up comedians performed.
Robles was one of the few friends whom Reyes spoke to before he fatally shot himself while visiting his parents’ grave in Marikina City on Tuesday morning.
“He called me up Monday at exactly one in the afternoon (1 p.m.) and told me that GMA just talked to him over the phone. I thought it was GMA Channel 7 so I asked him, ‘Pare, you’re going to be interviewed on television?’ I was just kidding but I knew he was referring to (former) President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo,” Robles told DZIQ.
The conversation with Arroyo and Reyes tackled, first, the letter Reyes sent to Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, asking his former junior officer to reveal his supporters in the investigation. Second was why he, Robles, was picking a fight with Parañaque City Representative Roilo Golez.
Robles said, “I think President GMA (Arroyo) should be the one who should speak about this. She should come out and tell what she knows.”
On Reyes’ suicide, Tulfo and Robles discussed how in Japanese and German culture, especially in the military, taking one’s life was considered an honorable thing to do.
Robles, in a light-hearted mood, said, “I’m telling you Mon (Tulfo), don’t laugh. But if all military generals who had [traces of graft and corruption] will commit suicide at once, only two or three will be left alive.”
Being a veteran tri-media journalist who has been covering the police and the military for decades, Tulfo said, “My God, that’s true.”
Robles revealed how some generals would ask, upfront, for P350 million.
Referring to the Senate hearing, Robles continued: “If in that meeting with senators, those who have sinned would take their lives, only few will be left standing.”
Tulfo agreed, saying, “You’re right, lucky if only two stay alive.”
After laughing, Robles said, “Yes, only two. Borrowing a term from the Bible, they are like whitened sepulchres, white from the outside but rotten inside.”
For the full interview, listen to the attached audio clip from Radyo Inquirer.