09/02/2023
On the morning of February 8, 2011, a month before his 66th birthday, General Angelo Reyes, together with two of his sons and a bodyguard, visited his mother's grave at the Loyola Memorial Park in Marikina.
He asked his children and bodyguard to go ahead and wait for him in the car, before shooting himself in the chest near the heart. He was rushed to Quirino Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City, but was declared dead on arrival and attempts to revive him were unsuccessful.
The cause of his su***de ranges from pressure from the media and the senators taking the questions to a personal level and his connection to the Arroyo administration, with one senator calling him "gutless coward".
Former Lt. Col. George Rabusa, who was budget officer when Reyes was Armed Forces chief, testified before a Senate panel and accused Reyes of receiving P50 million in "send-off" money when he retired from the Armed Forces, as part of a decades-old military tradition.
Reyes denied receiving such funds for his own use and sought to cross-examine Rabusa, but was refused the opportunity. Reyes then did not attend subsequent hearings in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Reyes was buried on February 13, 2011 with full military honours at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Metro Manila.