She traveled alone to bid Reyes a personal farewell

The solemn funeral of retired General Angelo Reyes was briefly gripped by tension when a group of military guards rushed to help a mourner, who had just fainted in front of the general's coffin near the altar at St. Ignatius Cathedral on Saturday morning. Grace Robiños, a 39-year-old woman, was gazing intently at Reyes’ casket when she felt her knees wobble and her body collapse under her weight. Guards quickly carried her to a nearby pew, where some fanned her to give her air, while others hurried through the church exit to call for a medic. "Hindi ko rin maipaliwanag. Nagco-concentrate ako maigi kay God tapos naiiyak na lang ako at iyon, bigla akong natumba," Robiños told GMANews.TV after she regained consciousness. Doctors at the military hospital where she was brought said Robinos must have been too exhausted. They later gave her a clean bill of health. Robiños said she just felt so sad about Reyes' death because "marami siyang natulungan pero hindi nakikita iyon ng tao [he helped many but people don’t see that]." She said she does not personally know the general and only saw him on television. The mourner, who lives with her husband and children in Laguna, said she has been commuting from their home in the province to Quezon City just to get a glimpse of Reyes, who shocked the nation by taking his own life last Tuesday in the midst of an expanding legislative inquiry into alleged irregularities in the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Robiños has been following the late general's coffin for the past three days, from Arlington Funeral Homes to St. Ignatius Cathedral inside Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City, where the AFP national headquarters is located. Robiños, who comes from a working class family that sells liquor for a living, said she had been traveling alone because she could not afford the extra bus fare for her husband or children. "P500 lang ang dala ko lagi, sapat na yun sa isang araw na biyahe at pagkain [I only carry P500 every time, that’s enough for daily transport and food]," she said. At the end of every day, Robiños would return home to Laguna. Then she would rise early the next morning for her journey back to Manila. Everytime she traveled back to Manila, Robiños said she would alight from the bus along EDSA and walk a good one kilometer from there to Camp Aguinaldo's entrance at Gate 1. "Siguro halu-halo na rin. Iyong lungkot ko sa pagkamatay ni General Reyes at iyong pagod ko kalalakad araw-araw para lang makarating dito [Maybe all these added up. My grief at General Reyes’ death and my exhaustion from walking everyday just to be here]," she said, when asked what could have caused her to faint. She said she has already apologized to Reyes' wife, Teresita, for disturbing the funeral’s solemnity. "They were very kind to me," Robiños added. Robiños vowed to also show up at Reyes’ interment at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig City on Sunday noon. She said she made it a point not to pass up on this opportunity to visit Reyes: "Hindi mo na uli magagawa itong ganito eh, na makita siya. Mas maganda na ito kaysa kapag nakalibing na sa sementeryo mo dadalawin." (You can’t do this, to get a glimpse of him, a second time. This is better than visiting him when he’s already under the ground in the cemetery.)—JV, GMA News