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| Photo courtesy of inquirer.net |
I don’t know personally Sec. Reyes but I felt that his death will become a celebrated one and might even trigger some serious and big future events in the country. I was shocked that a former General and Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines would succumb to pressure or perhaps depression amid the controversies he was facing vis-à-vis allegations that he received a huge P50M as a send-off gift when he finally retired from the military service.
I say it is unlikely for a strong-willed person like him to easily give up his life, knowing that he was a principled man. I knew him as someone who served in the military in the interest of the Filipino nation – no matter what others think of him as otherwise. For him, his honor and dignity were utmost. Not to mention his beloved family. Whatever were the accusations against him, even up to his last day, to me he was reasonable and statesman even as he was facing one of the most humiliating experiences one could ever imagine. To think that military men are known to be “officers and gentlemen”. If one is accused of something that he is innocent of, it comes as a devastating blow on one’s person. It must have been so painful to Sec. Reyes, especially, if in his heart he knew he was not guilty. But the events took the better of him. He allegedly pulled the trigger that eventually ripped his heart apart and fell on the grave of his mother – known to be very close to his heart.
This brings so many questions left unanswered, which only the Secretary could.
I condole with the family – especially to the children who could still be in a state of shock. I almost feel how the family feels. It is too difficult to lose a loved one, especially in the thickness of a battle.
No, don’t get me wrong. I am not siding anyone on the controversies surrounding the investigations going-on in the Senate. I am a person who does not easily jump to conclusions. I am just shocked that a former General allowed himself to be overcome by accusations not yet proven beyond reasonable doubt. In the guise of “in-aid-of-legislation”, the powerful Senate grills anyone even as one already begins to lose dignity in public because the media is always around to scoop and nose for the latest, juiciest, and sizzling twists and turns of the dramas of real lives. These resource persons become public properties waiting to be devoured by the best predators that can mince the most brutal, harshest, most pungent words that the ear maniacs love to applaud. And there is hardly a way that the victim-resource persons could subject the “honorable” members of the Senate or Congress to grill them also like what they did to them. And everything is done “in aid of legislation.”
Many investigations had been conducted by the Congress and the Senate. I was not able to follow up all of them – as I also have other interests. But may I ask: How many among those hot and high profile investigations really produced the laws much needed by this country for it to become the nation we all dreamt to be? I only have ten fingers. And I hope each finger could represent these legislations which were offshoots of high profile investigations. I would have preferred that serious accusations be tackled in the proper courts so that when those found guilty of graft and corruptions could be convicted right there and then.
The loss of one General Angelo Reyes is a big one. No matter what may have been his alleged involvements in some irregularities, ending his life is not redemptive either because it made us wonder more of the truth.
To Sec. Reyes, Godspeed. You will be missed by so many people whose lives you’ve personally touched. Meanwhile, I pray that your self sacrifice will bear much fruit for this nation. And let history be the judge of who you have been to the Filipino people.
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2 comments:
This incident is something that makes us Filipinos more vulnerable to "batikos" in the outside world...whatever you call it!
But is he man enough? Considering that he is a general, a PMA graduate? So many questions will now be buried with him in his grave.
May he rest in peace!
You have written better than all the news reports that I read even in yahoo...:)
what a compliment! hahaha!
c'mon, there are more writers out there better than me. i simply wrote my thoughts immediately because they might escape me again.
you have a similar reaction to what i had after some minutes that i was listening to the radio reports. my question was 'why?'. a general at that? a tough guy who crushed the mnlf? a stern angelo reyes taking his life because of allegations not yet proven beyond reasonable doubt? was he not man enough?
on second thoughts, only tough guys could have the guts to point a deadly gun towards their own chests to be sure the heart is pierced to pieces and make it medically impossible to revive. it must have been so painful to think that the brain does not die instantly with it. in fact, he was heard to have uttered some words - proof that he did not die instantly but in agony.
in the military lens, he did a courageous, brave, and sacrificial act. even in history, some of the toughest military conquerors took their own lives rather than be humiliated due to defeat or other demeaning situations. despite his success in conquering several countries to his side, adolf hitler was believed to have pulled also the trigger to himself than suffer trial or military death squad. an entry in wikipedia reads:
Adolf Hitler committed suicide by gunshot on the 30th of April in 1945 in his Führerbunker in Berlin. His wife Eva (née Braun), committed suicide with him by ingesting poison.
to reyes, it must have been the most honorable thing for him to do rather than admit something and lose face.
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