Reyes is the man

One can’t help but think that perhaps retired military general Angelo Reyes, the former Armed Forces chief, is among the most competent officials of the Arroyo presidency. After all, it is generally assumed that the Chief Executive picks the best and the brightest to join her government, and Reyes is among the appointed officials she has kept in her service the longest.

No doubt the honorable secretary is also among the luckiest in the Cabinet—having risen from the ranks not only due to his competency and fortitude but also for being at the right place, in the right time, while making all the right moves.

An example was his decision in January 2001 as Armed Forces chief to support Mrs. Arroyo over then- President Joseph Estrada, which was the crucial turning point for the sitting administration.

In her more than six years in office, and perhaps until her term ends three years from now, President Arroyo has kept Reyes in office, although occasionally moving him from one Cabinet portfolio to another—perhaps convinced that in any situation, he is her go-to guy. In the same manner that she relied on him in January 2001, perhaps she truly believes that she can rely on his loyalty and protection until 2010.

And in gratitude for his continued service to the nation, maybe the President is methodically giving the retired general a “taste” of everything as he moves him around—serving somewhat like her understudy or apprentice being groomed to take over from her in the future.

Politics, after all, appears to be in Reyes’s calling. It was rumored early on that Reyes (“king” in Spanish, by the way) had wanted to run for the Senate in May.  And why not, given his track record in the military as well as in the Cabinet? And the Senate has always been a stepping block to the presidency.

Moreover, no other Cabinet official can be more “rounded” now than Reyes, given his vast experience in military and civilian governance.

In fact, it seems his military background and training was never a limitation to his assumption of sensitive Cabinet posts, at least as far as President Arroyo is concerned.

Since retiring from the military more than six years ago after having achieved the highest rank of Armed Forces chief of staff, Reyes first joined the “civilian” bureaucracy in 2001 as secretary of National Defense—a post usually given to a retired Armed Forces boss, and a seemingly fitting reward for his loyalty and support of Mrs. Arroyo during Edsa 2.

A couple of years after, in 2003, he was named antikidnapping adviser of the President, and then her antismuggling adviser. Then in July 2004 he was named secretary of the Interior and Local Government, and was given supervision over all national police and fire services, among others. This was fine, or course, since all this was within Reyes’s competency, obviously, having been a long-time military officer.

But what was interesting was his appointment in February 2006 as secretary of the Environment, and by yesterday, in place of the “retiring” Raphael Lotilla, as secretary of Energy.

It is somewhat difficult to relate to the President’s recent decisions on Reyes, although this is not to discount the man’s capabilities. After all, Reyes holds master’s degrees: in business management from the Asian Institute of Management, and in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

He has also taken courses on trust corporations at Northwestern University in Chicago, and on logistics management at the Naval Post-Graduate School in Montery, California. He is also a graduate of the Philippine Military Academy.

Reyes is, likewise, well-connected in business through, among others, his classmates at AIM ’73: PLDT’s Napoleon Nazareno, former top business executive and now Education Secretary Jesli Lapus, former agrarian reform secretary and now business school dean Philip Juico, and jeweller Manuel Cojuangco. Also part of this class is now AIM president Francis Estrada.

Nonetheless, there are others who are just as qualified, and as academically pedigreed, and as well-connected to business as Reyes, or even more so. It, therefore, appears unwarranted that a Cabinet official like him should be “recycled” over and over, moved from one portfolio to another, if only to fill certain vacancies. Unless the President truly believes that he was the right man for Environment, and now the right man for Energy.

But sad to say, one can’t recall any highly significant achievement of Reyes at Defense, nor at Interior, nor later at Environment. He was too quiet an achiever, perhaps. However, no one spectacular either, it seems. And at Energy, there seems to be no significant strategic advantage in having named him to the post.

Given the country’s many problems in energy now, him as Cabinet point man might not be enough. Perhaps the President should finally end her patronage and generosity to Reyes and reconsider, for everybody’s sake. 

Comment to matort@yahoo.com

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