Arroyo visits Reyes wake, evades media interviews

Clad in a black dress to signify mourning, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Friday night visited the wake of her former Armed Forces chief, Angelo Reyes, whom she also appointed to various Cabinet posts under her presidency. Mrs. Arroyo, now representing Pampanga's second district in the Lower House, arrived at the St. Ignatius Cathedral inside Camp Aguinaldo at around 6:30 p.m. The former president merely smiled and made a hand gesture signaling her refusal to grant any media interviews. As she exited the cathedral, Arroyo approached Reyes’ sons, who simply said, "Thank you, ma'am." The former president smiled back, then boarded her vehicle. Arroyo’s visit came two hours after her successor President Benigno Aquino III also dropped by to pay his last respects. During his brief visit, Aquino spoke for some 30 minutes with the immediate family and other relatives of the late AFP chief. (See: From Sulu, Aquino heads straight to Reyes' wake) With the President were former Senator Manuel Roxas II, his vice-presidential teammate in the May 2010 elections, Interior Sec. Jesse Robredo, and Defense Sec. Voltaire Gazmin. ACTO’s De Luna makes his appearance Efren de Luna, national president of the Alliance of Concerned Transport Organizations (ACTO), arrived at the cathedral shortly after Mrs. Arroyo left. ACTO used to be allied with 1-UTAK, a party-list group representing the transport sector that originally listed Reyes at its first nominee but dropped him at the last minute. De Luna said he has no worries in showing himself at the cathedral, despite the Reyes family's earlier emotional outburst telling critics of the late general, including 1-UTAK, that they are not welcome to the former AFP chief’s wake. "Sa tingin ko ay dapat isantabi muna ang mga ganung sentimyento. Kami naman sa ACTO ay humiwalay na rin sa 1-UTAK bago mag-eleksyon noong Mayo," explained de Luna. (I think we should set aside such sentiments for now. After all, we in ACTO have also left 1-UTAK before the May elections were held.) De Luna urged members of the transport sector to pay their last respects to Reyes, even if massive protests had been staged during the term of Reyes as Energy secretary, when he earned the sector’s ire for not showing any effort to stop repeated oil price hikes.—Mark D. Merueñas/JV, GMA News