Ruben Reyes - Profile

Profile

Reyes was born in Hagonoy, Bulacan, and is married to lawyer Ellie Cruz-Reyes, of Baliuag, Bulacan (head of screening and evaluation, Ombudsman office, 2001) and have four children with initial WRIT: Pastor Winston, Dr. Roselin, IT consultant Jason Immanuel and lawyer Tammy Ann. Tammy Ann (valedictorian of San Beda college of law) is a division clerk of court in the Court of Appeals.

Reyes earned his law degree from the Manuel L. Quezon University in 1962. He engaged in private practice for several years before becoming a city fiscal in Manila. Reyes won the 1981 Best Resolution Contest.

Reyes was then appointed as a trial court judge, assigned first in Batangas, then in Manila where he received an Outstanding RTC award and became RTC Judges Association president. He also edited the Philippine Judges Association Newsletter and Bench Bulletin.

Reyes studied 8 summer courses in the U.S., including the 1st Harvard Law School Workshop for Law Teachers and Scholars, the 35th Academy of American and International Law, Appellate Judges Seminar, California Judicial College and National Judicial College. He was also president of the Philippine Association of Law Professors, trustee and lecturer of the Philippine Judicial Academy. In 2002, he was a Bar examiner in Legal Ethics and authored the Bar Reviewer on Special Penal Laws. He was a lecturer on Mandatory Continuing Legal Education, co-chair of the Supreme Court sub-committee on MCLE Draft Rules, member of the Supreme Court committee on legal education & Bar matters and resource person in Criminal and Remedial Laws at the UP Law Center. He received the following awards - the CUP Outstanding Justice of the Court of Appeals, Bulacan Dangal ng Lipi, YMCA Presidential awards, and two Supreme Court awards on judicial reforms.

In 1994, he was appointed by President Fidel V. Ramos to sit on the Court of Appeals. Reyes sat on the appellate court for 13 years, and was eventually named as its Presiding Justice in January 2006.

He was appointed to the Court on August 2, 2007 by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Following Associate Justices Alicia Austria-Martinez and Cancio Garcia, Reyes became the third former Presiding Justice of the Court of Appeals to sit in the Puno Court. He had been nominated to the Supreme Court four previous times by the Judicial and Bar Council before he was finally appointed to fill the vacancy left with the retirement of Romeo J. Callejo, Sr..

Two retired justices had warned against Reyes’ appointment, since he had exceeded the age limit. Reyes was due to retire on January 2009, when he reached the age of 70. Under the rules of the Judicial and Bar Council, only those career officials who are able to serve for at least one and a half years will be considered. Meanwhile, the High Tribunal asked Reyes to comment on the allegations of corruption in Cebu CA substations during his time in the CA that were raised by a Manila-based newspaper columnist, a litigant who lost a civil case, and an anti-crime crusader in the Visayas. The Court of Appeals stations in the Visayas and Mindanao are facing possible reorganization or temporary transfer to Manila in the wake of allegations of corruption in the Cebu judiciary that has worried the Supreme Court. These options were recommended by Reyes.

Reyes retired from the Court in January 2009 upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70.

On August 14, 2009, Reyes was found guilty by the Supreme Court of leaking a draft decision that he had penned in the election disqualification case against Negros Oriental Rep. Jocelyn Limkaichong. Because of his culpability he was indefinitely barred from practicing law and perpetual disqualification from holding government position.