spinning suicide

Until the end, he was an officer, a gentleman. He did not betray anyone, he did not squeal.

libingan ng mga bayani?   full military honors?   what message are we sending here?   what disgraceful pattern are we setting?

there is nothing honourable about the general’s suicide, except of course to the family and friends and institutions he spared from investigation and incrimination.

while suicide may be an act of courage — it takes guts to kill oneself — it is also, in the context of corruption allegations, a cop-out, an escape from reality, an incapacity to do the right thing, a lack of moral fiber.

the right thing would have been to face the music, admit one’s culpabilities (if any), squeal on other wrongdoers (if any), and exonerate the innocent (if any), for the higher good, the good of the nation.

imagine if he and his wife, instead of ranting vs the whistleblowers, had bowed to the call of the times and told the truth, no matter how much it hurt, no matter that it would mean the end of a normal life, no matter the danger.

what a coup that would have been.   standing up for the truth.   a ninoy moment, an edsa moment, that the nation would have hailed extolled celebrated.   sayang.

Comments

  1. Anonymous

    try to explore the military culture, partisan politics, brotherhood between doctors, lawyers, fraternity, you as a filipino and the filipino culture as a whole. the incident does not only revolve around corruption in the afp. and a ninoy moment? who wins then? if we get rid of arroyo, us with jinggoy, trillanes, enrile, santiago, noynoy? nagpapatawa ka.

  2. manuelbuencaminYoo

    Although I believe Rabusa’s testimony our system of justice maintains that Reyes is innocent until proven guilty. So he gets all the honors due a former AFP-COS distasteful as it may be in light of Rabusa’s testimony. We have to respect due process.

    Let’s allow him the honors. For now.

    Hopefully, at some point there will be proof to corroborate the testimony of Rabusa and we can disinter his corpse from the Libingan and turn it over to his family.

  3. He has the brains, the the education, connections, opportunities, positions in high places, but he chose to be eaten up by the corrupt system.

    I hope the catholic church won’t accord him the Requiem or the last sacrament. If not for outright stealing then for the suicide. Children should learn from this.

  4. manuelbuencamino

    angela,

    Like you I think he was guilty of, at the very least, tolerating the slush fund.

    But like I said the decision to bury him in Libingan is based on our due process system. That’s why my suggestion is to continue the investigation so we will know whether he deserves to be buried there or not, whether or not he gets to keep his honors.

    I am suspicious of calls to close the books on Reyes. If I were a relative, friend, supporter, or sympathizer of Reyes I would call for a thorough investigation instead of asking that the matter be closed. A thorough investigation is the only way that Reyes’ name can be cleared.

  5. “I can kill myself if I want to,” a final act of control on a life of someone who feels powerless.
    – Brian, La Mesa, CA

    —–

    libingan ng mga bayani???

    bad joke

    —–

    well, actually, suicide is a sad thing especially to those close to the taker who were left behind.

    naah…not that i’m sad how this turned out…but one thing often gets into my mind when suicide happens and i somehow want to clear the air of sadness is the thought…

    suicide is painless: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVUXPjFWfX4&NR=1

    good joke!

  6. Mas mabuti nalang yung ginawa niya kesa kay Gloria at sa iba pang mga kurakot na MAKAPAL ANG MUKHA.

    Hindi ko naman sinasabi na honorable or virtuous yung o tama yung ginawa niya. Ang point ko lang, mas mabuti na yon kesa sa kurakot sa gubyerno na million million ang ninanakaw sa bayan.

    Pero sana next time, yung susunod sa yapak ni Reyes e sabihin muna yung totoo, at isiwalat ang katotohanan bago magpakatiwakal, para totoong honorable. Dehins yung ganito, death for convenience lang.

  7. Libingsn ng mga Bayani???? For the elite and powerful generals to appease their errant generals who saved their assess while the ordinary soldiers die on battlefield to keep democracy against deviant Islamic fundamentalist and justice-hungry Red bands. What a paradym shift in honoring the noble, sublime and brave warrior to be emulated by our patriotic young minds.

  8. “I hope the catholic church won’t accord him the Requiem or the last sacrament.”-Niknok

    They did already, Niknok, it’s done. They said they gave him the sacrament because the good general was out of his mind when he committed suicide. I can’t believe it.

    I think it’s because he’s rich…and a general.

  9. manuelbuencamino

    angela,

    “can’t libingan ng mga bayani wait until he is cleared?”

    I believe Reyes is involved and does not deserve to be buried in Libingan. Unfortunately it is innocent until proven guilty. So we can disintern after proving guilt but not prevent burial before that.

    “i’m thinking of the children who don’t understand due process. what will they think?”

    mahirap ngang ipaliwanag sa mga bata. But we must because we have to teach the young ones that without due process our personal liberty will always be in jeopardy. We must uphold due process for all, even for the most undeserving, because it’s better that one or two people slip through the cracks than to live with lynch mobs.

    “suicide is painless, so to speak?”

    in his case it was convenient.

    .

  10. manuelbuencamino

    J

    “If Reyes would be accorded state burial, Marcos should be, too!

    Marcos was a soldier. He was not convicted, as far as I know.”

    Marcos was overthrown, toppled by people power. That’s why he is not in Libingan.

  11. UP nn grad

    I hope that as soon as the noise and media-blitz dies (which should be days after the burial) that Malacanang puts resources into continuing investigations into Reyes. First, as Miriam-Santiago had said, any illegal wealth belongs to Pilipinas and does not become part of inheritance (that’s one of the lessons Cory Aquino and subsequent presidents demonstrated with amazing success with pursuit of Marcos wealth).

    And this counter-point — does Rabusa have court-admissible evidence against Reyes? I hope the reyes children puts their loyalty to test by challenging Rabusa to substantiate his statements. In the end, though, this (finding court-admissible evidence) really is Malacanang’s job.

  12. UP nn grad

    What is still perplexing and a sad statement about Pilipinas is this. If Gen Reyes goal is one-million-US-dollars, that should have been a slam-dunk given his Harvard and Northwestern degrees and his contacts within Harvard graduates. Seriously, making a million-dollars by age 60 should have been a near-guaranty for him. If he wanted it so bad and he couldn’t do it in Pilipinas, then pack up and migrate — again, he’s not just a La Salle graduate, his MBA’s are tier1. The million is easy, easy meaning he would know how to do it and he’d find that network of entrepreneurs and businessmen who would share ideas on how to to get to point-A from point-B and what landmines to avoid (like buying houses in California when the bubble was already bursting). And even better,then the skills/life-lessons (how to be a success in life) would be something to pass on to his sons without any quibble about keeping dark secrets.

  13. manuelbuencamino

    UPNN,

    Since you cited Miriam, this is what she said in an interview with DZBB – ”Reyes can be convicted on the basis of the testimony of one eyewitness alone. I am not saying of one witness, but one EYEWITNESS, he was there.”

  14. UP nn grad

    What Miriam said…Trillanes most handsome of Congress, is suspect, isn’t it? What Miriam says (or what the Top-Honcho of CBCP says) about guilty-not-guilty credible-because-it-comes-from-the-Heavens …. has got to go through the courts. And you’ve said this too on selective occasions yourself. No different than benign0 saying Pilipinas is bestest-in-Eastest.

  15. The taxpayers are spending 2-M pesos per pma cadet…only to steal more money from them when they graduate. if they get caught, suicide is an option, and squealing is out of the question. this reminds me of godfather part 2.

    Oh maybe they should consider changing the name of libingan ng mga bayani to libingan ng mga tiwali.

  16. UP nn grad

    News articles say that Cimatu is holding his ground and denies Rabusa allegations. I do not know guilty from innocent, but if former AFP fund manager retired Lt. Col. George Rabusa does not have evidence that results in jail/conviction for Cimatu (about P80-million pabaon) then the Reyes family can have peace of mind that Rabusa does not have evidence to convict General Reyes.

  17. Joe Bloggs

    With regards to the skimming/scamming of the soldiers’ salary, how much are we talking about? Multiply this by how long it had been going on and the figure must be mind boggling! Must be in the billions of pesos. Then consider how the hierarchy in the military and their political counterparts have been living it up then the largesse must have been spread pretty widely. An AFP Chief of Staff salary is how much? Not enough to support the current lifestyles of these generals.

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