J. B. L. Reyes - Personal Life and Legacy

Personal Life and Legacy

Reyes was married to Rosario L. Reyes, a distant relative who predeceased him by nearly forty years. They had three children.

Reyes had many protégés in the Philippine legal academe, especially in the field of civil law. Among the most prominent were Philippine Supreme Court Associate Justice Jose Vitug (who clerked for Reyes in the Court), and Ruben Balane.

Following his retirement from the Court, Reyes was named as the head of the Civil Code Revision Committee of the UP Law Center. This Committee was instrumental in the drafting of the Family Code which took effect in 1987. In this capacity, Reyes advocated the equal treatment of wives and husbands under family law, and many substantial changes to the Civil Code were enacted to that effect. While Reyes himself was in favor of allowing divorce, this was not adopted by the Family Code.

A more notorious component of Reyes's legacy was his role in the increased difficulty of the bar examinations. Since the end of World War II, the passing rate of the bar examinations had ranged from 56 to 72% percent. However, when Reyes chaired the Bar Examinations Committee in 1955, the passing rate dropped dramatically to 26.8%, with a mortality rate of 73.2%. That ratio has been invariably maintained in the 50+ years since.

Reyes was an enthusiastic amateur photographer and painter. He was also among the first prominent Filipino practitioners of yoga.

In 2006, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines dedicated the multi-purpose hall in its main offices as the "Jose B.L. Reyes Hall".