Dying in Vain: a Reaction to Angelo Reyes' Death

News about the death of Angelo Reyes reached me late this afternoon when Mama Sez read comments on Facebook about his committing suicide. When she dug deeper online, she found comments about the news to range from “who is he?” to “I knew him to be a good man”, from “guilt is too heavy to carry” to “don’t pass judgement on him”, and also “he died with honor”, which got an avalanche of angry replies including a lighter “he died with HORROR” comment. All these represent the wide range of opinions about the end of a life of distinction…a decorated soldier, officer, Philippine Armed Forces Chief of Staff and cabinet member of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

While I can give Angelo Reyes the benefit of the doubt on his supposed involvement in the military funds scandal under investigation, I cannot let him off the hook on this his final act of cowardice!  I say this even though I realize that unless one is in his shoes, it’s difficult to understand what made him take his life in the presence of his family.

In one of my management coaching sessions, we pose the question while visualizing one’s own funeral rites “what would you like your family, colleagues and friends to say to sum up your life?” “What would be the legacy you want to leave?” Such an exercise is designed to create a vision of what you want to be and do. In the same module, participants also learned about mistakes as a natural consequence of our own choices. But mistakes need not be shameful as long as one has the courage to admit it, learn from it and work towards correcting it.

I venture to say that if Angelo Reyes was indeed a good man based on our cultural standards, and I can believe that indeed he is (as I really don’t know him personally), he must have been swallowed by the system that rewards officials for just going along and/or turning a blind eye on unethical activities deeply embedded in how our government operates.  Besides, we have seen so many goody two shoes and whistle blowers kicked to the teeth and blown off the face of the earth for simply doing what’s right.

Angelo Reyes was very fortunate to have been given more than most of us would ever get in our lifetime- golden opportunities to choose greatness, having emerged at the helm in his distinguished career as a soldier and public official. However, I guess greatness will not be the legacy Angelo Reyes would leave his family, his institution or his country. Oh others might argue that he was instrumental in the success of People Power 2 or EDSA 2, having defected at the right moment. But then, many have argued that that shortcut Filipinos did caused more harm than good to the institutions that we wanted changed. It just fed on our immaturity as a people and contributed to the insecurity of our institutions. Who knows, history might judge EDSA 2 as merely a battle for control between factions of our elite (just like the battle for territory between groups of ants in my own backyard that happened that very same time).

His final act put all of what happened from then until now in a better light. The seemingly brave actions of some of our finest people can now be understood as merely an act of self-preservation, of cowardice. Now it might not be preservation of own self that made Angelo Reyes commit this ultimate act, but preservation of what he, his fellow accused and the institutions they represented stood for.

This was boldly proclaimed by General Dionisio Santiago, former Armed Forces chief when Reyes was defense secretary and co-accused in the military fund scandal. “He protected all of us, even the institution, for the Filipino people, for us to move on.” What a sad ending to the current investigation of the scandal they are trying to write… and wish for the Filipino people to just “move on” and themselves, of course, to go scot-free. So will it be another one of those incredible Philippine phenomena that a crime happened without any perpetrator?

Angelo Reyes stood once again at the threshold of greatness when he was given the opportunity to admit a mistake, learn from it and correct it…whatever his mistake might have been (regardless if it was turning a blind eye to the wrongs or actually participating in carrying them out) in the current scandal.  He was no better than Romulo Neri’s covering up for his cohorts and boss and just wished to “moderate their greed.”  But Neri and the generals, being alive, still has a chance…to pick greatness over cowardice.

There’s another person, mere mortal and imperfect as one can be, who when given a chance to stand in the threshold of greatness mustered the courage to die for change, for freedom against tyranny. We honor him as the one who said “the Filipino is worth dying for.”

Generals, is the Filipino worth dying for? I guess the question is “which Filipino?”