A grieving Reyes took time off from the wake of his mother, Purificacion "Puring" Tomas-Reyes, who passed away after two months of lingering illness. She was 95 years old.
Clad in a black tuxedo, Reyes arrived at the hotel ballroom ready to sing at the charity concert with Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Bayani Fernando and Manila Hotel president Jose Lina. The trio did the front act for visiting vocal group The Lettermen.
Lina was secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) before taking over the helm of the Manila Hotel.
Reyes, Lina and Fernando sang a medley of Spanish, French, Italian, German and Tagalog songs and the show ended with the Philippines’ Three Tenors and The Lettermen singing "Dahil Sa Iyo" and The Lettermen’s "You’re My Everything" as a sextet.
Acknowledging the brave face Reyes was putting on for the show, Lina and Fernando gave Reyes the opportunity to speak before the audience at the end of their first set.
"I had serious reservations (about) whether I would sing tonight," Reyes said. "But I remembered that my mother had always attended and never missed watching any of our concerts (even when she was) seated in her wheelchair in the center aisle."
Reyes said his ailing mother had looked forward to last night’s concert with The Lettermen, who had been popular when the Reyes matriarch was much younger.
He also recalled that his mother, in the two months she had been confined at Manila Doctors Hospital on United Nations Avenue in Manila, invited all the hospital’s doctors, nurses, medical staff and her visitors to accompany her to the concert.
"If I were to ask her whether I would sing tonight, I am certain she would say: ‘Go ahead and sing. Sing for me and sing for all of them,’" Reyes said, his voice cracking with emotion. "So, tonight, I sing for all of you and I know she also listens to me now approvingly."
Reyes’ elder brother, Lito, said he prodded the DILG chief to proceed with the dinner concert: "He would be singing for our mother, not in spite of all this but because that’s what she would have wanted him to do."
Reyes steeled himself against criticism from people who might question his breaking the Filipino tradition of mourning the dead, especially one’s deceased parents.
"It’s between me and my mother," he said on the eve of his concert, while still contemplating whether or not to sing with The Lettermen. "People who don’t know my mother and who don’t know me should not criticize me.
"The concept that ‘the show must go on’ is for show business people — even if they are dying themselves," Reyes said. "I’m not a showman. I’m not getting paid for this."
Beth Tagle, the producer of the last six concerts of the Three Tenors, said the first such concert was organized to provide free legal aid for personnel of the Philippine National Police (PNP) when Lina was still DILG chief.
The next Three Tenors concert was held for the benefit of enlisted personnel of the Armed Forces of the Philippines during Reyes’ tenure as AFP chief.