Angelo Tomas Reyes was born in San Miguel, Manila on March 17, 1945 to Pablo and Purificacion Reyes, both public school teachers. Reyes considered Binangonan, Rizal as his ancestral town. Reyes graduated valedictorian from the Ramon Magsaysay (Cubao) High School (then named Cubao High School) in Quezon City. From there, he entered the Philippine Military Academy and graduated seventh place in PMA Class 1966.
Reyes held the following positions in the Philippine Army (PA) and in the top brass of Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), garnering various military medals and citations throughout his 39-year military career until he retired in 2001:
- Team leader, Special Forces Group PA (Airborne);
- Commanding officer (CO), 4th Infantry Battalion PA, Zamboanga;
- CO, 602nd Infantry Brigade PA, Davao provinces;
- Commanding General (CG), Civil Relations Service AFP;
- Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, J2 AFP;
- CG, 5th Infantry Division PA, covering Northeastern Luzon;
- CG, Southern Command AFP, covering the whole of Mindanao;
- CG, PA; and
- Chief of Staff, AFP
Reyes played a pivotal role in the ouster of then President Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s rise to the presidency in January 2001. Then AFP chief, he led the military hierarchy in withdrawing its support from Estrada and in shifting its support to a mass uprising now popularly called the EDSA-2 Revolt. Estrada was subsequently forced to leave Malacañang that paved for then Vice President Arroyo to assume the presidency. Reyes subsequently held the following key Cabinet-level positions under the nine-year Arroyo administration:
- Secretary, Department of National Defense (DND) from March 19, 2001 to August 29, 2003;
- Secretary, Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) from July 12, 2004 to February 14, 2006;
- Secretary, Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) from Feb. 15, 2006 to July 31, 2007; and
- Secretary, Department of Energy (DOE) from August 1, 2007 to March 2010.
Apart from these or concurrent to these, Reyes also held a substantial number of civilian posts relating to law enforcement, environment and energy, as well as chairmanships and vice-chairmanships in several government corporations. During his long military and later civilian career, Reyes earned two master’s degrees: one in Business Management at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), and one in Public Administration at the Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government in Massachusetts. He also finished various post-graduate courses in trust operations at the Ateneo Business School and Northwestern University in Chicago; and various defense-related management courses in the US, Taiwan, and the Philippines. Reyes resigned from the DOE to seek a congressional seat under the party-list system, running in the May 2010 elections as the first nominee of the 1-UTAK party-list group. The group, however, decided to withdraw Reyes' nomination after it was questioned by militant organizations. Reyes is survived by wife Teresita Pernia Reyes of Pampanga and Bohol, and five sons Pablo, Angelito, Marc, Carlo and Judd.
—JV, GMA News 
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