Jinggoy wants Reyes family spared from Senate probe

If he will have his way, Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada will spare the family of the late Defense chief Angelo Reyes from any inquiry on the alleged corruption in the Armed Forces of the Philippines. "Kung ako, di na siguro (If it were up to me, I wouldn't summon them to the hearings)," Estrada told reporters on Wednesday. He made the statement after Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago said that Reyes' wife and their five children may be summoned to Senate hearings to answer questions on whether they have become liable under the Anti-Graft Act. Estrada, however, said that these were only the thoughts of Santiago. "Sen. Miriam has her own opinion," he said. Estrada was the one who brought former military budget officer Lt. Col. George Rabusa to the Senate investigation, where Rabusa accused Reyes of receiving some P100 million during his stint as AFP chief and not less than P50 million more as "pabaon" (send-off money) when the former AFP chief of staff retired in March 2001. Reyes had denied the allegation and accused Rabusa of smearing his reputation. He then filed criminal and administrative charges against Estrada and Rabusa before the Office of the Ombudsman for supposedly causing "undue injury... through manifest partiality, evident bad faith or gross inexcusable negligence" under Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. Likewise, he had asked Estrada and Senators Francis Escudero, Antonio Trillanes IV, and Miriam Defensor-Santiago to inhibit from participating in the Senate inquiries because they had "lost their cold neutrality." After Reyes' death, Estrada said he would like the late general to be excluded from the blue ribbon committee's final report. "Isasama mo si Gen. Reyes, sino ipo-prosecute mo? (If you do include him, who would you prosecute?)," he said. Reyes, born on March 17, 1945, was rushed to the Quirino Memorial Medical Center (QMMC) in Quezon City at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, with a single gunshot wound in his chest. Doctors tried to revive him for 45 minutes but failed. Health Secretary Enrique Ona, who was at the QMMC at the time, said Reyes was officially proclaimed dead at 8:32 a.m. on February 8, the birthday of President Benigno Simeon Aquino III. Later reports claimed that Reyes committed suicide in front of his mother's grave at the Loyola Memorial Park in Marikina City. — LBG/KBK, GMA News