Published by the Bohol Chronicle
General Angelo Tomas-Reyes is considered a Boholano by affinity for having married Teresita Macapinlac-Pernia, eldest daughter of Pantaleon Pernia of this city and Inda Macapinlac of Pampanga.
Tess or Nik-Nik was then a bored HNC student in Tagbilaran City helping her parents tend the popular "La Pampanguena Cafe", near the Bohol Provincial Hospital (now Gallares Hospital) - when a group of visiting PMAers passed by for snacks.
Love struck was Angelo or Angie Reyes who courted via letters to Tess in Cebu later on. Challenged to come over Cebu and prove his professed love, the young Reyes flew to the southern prime city and won the heart of the Pernia lass. They married.
Tess was a statuesque looker who won Miss Lions and became finalist of the Bb. Pilipinas in a year she would rather be kept between relatives.
Reyes, last Tuesday, killed himself in an apparent suicide at a memorial park in Marikina, Manila, amid allegations of graft raised by his critics in the senate with the help of a former military officer. (See editorial)
Many have varying accounts of their evaluation of Reyes.
But up close and personal have I known Angelo T Reyes and this I know of him:
The Angie I know is a devoted family man who was not afraid to show (PDA) public display of affection to his wife, sons and especially grandchildren. There is nothing he will not do for them.
The Angie I know loved his mother Purificacion so much - he would visit her almost everyday in her ancestral home in San Juan (till her death at over 90 years old) and sometimes speak to her on the phone at night until she fell asleep. His death (an apparent suicide) over the tomb of his "Mama Mia" speaks volume about where his most comfortable zone in life (and death) was.
The Angie I know was so bright, he had to force himself to be assigned to the combat battlefield rather than the office (where his cerebral self was most useful). A 7th placer PMAer, Asian Institute of Management and Harvard University masteral graduate, he had to asked to fight the NPAs in Isabela and the Muslims in the Southern Command in Mindanao in order to hasten his promotion.
The Angie I know, though stern on the outside, was a man of sense of humor who can throw even a dour senator like a Miriam Santiago laughing into stitches with his funny spiels during programs.
The Angie I know wanted to perfect his singing and had a trio with former senator Joey Lina and former MMDA chairman Bayani Fernando called the Three Tenors. He is really from AIM when it comes to singing (Ayaw Ibigay and Microphone) once he starts.
The Angie I know can do ballroom dancing and wife Tess is a mean "Argentine Tango" dancer like Mary Rosebud (Lacson's arch enemy) so the former secretary had to bring Tess to meetings abroad as they always had socials that required dancing.
The Angie I know demands perfection from his staff and often speaks in a staccato military-like fashion, often mistaken for arrogance. Through the years he developed an engaging smile reserved for the watchful public.
The Angie I know wanted physicality and kept in shape by jogging, swimming, playing tennis and walking the flight of two stairs at a time. He was a health freak who ate simple food and can strike an interesting conversation with the mighty and the lowly.
The Angie I know trained his five sons: Boogie, Jett, Mark, Carlos and Judd to be courteous and respectful of older people who "sirs" and "mams" most elders and bless the hands of relatives. Most of them are gainfully employed or running successful mid-sized businesses.
The Angie I knew encouraged his wife Tess early on to be an independent businesswoman starting with a small garment outfit while still staying in their ancestral home in San Juan to real estate brokering and buy-and-sell.
The Angie I know always yearly celebrated his and Tess birthdays and wedding anniversaries with parties of food, dancing, singing and program with kids and grandchildren around.
The Angie I know only started building his own home with a P10-million loan from a commercial bank when he was already a general nine years ago. He is adaptive to both Spartan and classy living. Afterall he comes from a middle-class family of school teachers-parents. He was valedictorian at the Ramon Magsaysay High School in Cubao in 1960.
The Angie I know helped lowly soldiers with his own funds or follow up their benefits while in power.
The Angie I know was told once of a DENR official asking for grease money somewhere in the western Visayas in exchange for a legitimate payment and had the culprit transferred after less than a week.
The Angie I know was almost a partner in trading business where I was to assemble exporters and he tried to lock in a German multinational buyer. That never got off the ground somehow.
The Angie I know readily accepted to be the Keynote Speaker in the 50th anniversary of the Bohol Chronicle in 2004 at the Metro Center where I introduced him as Guest of Honor. He praised the Chronicle for its commitment to freedom, justice and the rule of law for 50 years.
The Angie I know wanted to serve his country more and confessed to me that that is why he wanted to run for Congress as party list representative when his chances for a senate seat was made dim by the unpopularity of the GMA administration of which he was largely identified.
The Angie I know was the professional manager of the then healthy AFP-RSBS or the retirement arm of the soldiers and he always dealt arms length with financial borrowers and placers alike.
The Angie I know was just a young AFP officer who guaranteed my good behavior while being sent by Citibank Manila for training abroad since I was tagged by the military in the mid-70s as a rebel activist form school. The DFA approved my papers one day before departure date.
The Angie that I know before EDSA 2 asked me what people thought of him. And I said that people believed that at the end of the day you will side with the people. Angie just smiled and he did EDSA 2.
Angelo T Reyes will be laid to rest today. An officer and gentleman to the end - that is how I know him to be.
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