MANILA, Philippines – Armed Forces reformist and retired Philippine Navy commodore Rex Robles died on Sunday, July 5 at the age of 75.

This was confirmed to Rappler by Navy chief Vice Admiral Giovanni Carlo Bacordo, who disclosed that Robles died at around 2 am at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center.

“He is one of the bright minds of the Philippine Navy. Everybody listens when he speaks,” Bacordo said in a text message.

Robles was one of the founding members of the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM), a cabal of soldiers who defected against Ferdinand Marcos in February 1986 and joined the civilians in the People Power Revolution that ended Marcos’ brutal dictatorship.

However, RAM also tried to oust democracy icon, Corazon Aquino, through bloody coups. 

Robles was known as one of RAM’s key political theorists and propaganda expert, and was in the inner circle of former defense minister Juan Ponce Enrile at the Department of National Defense.

Robles was part of the Feliciano Commission, a probing panel that investigated the botched Oakwood Mutiny of the Magdalo group in 2003.

A staunch supporter of the Duterte administration, he was appointed to the Constitutional Commission, a panel tasked to review the 1987 Constitution and propose revisions for a federal charter. – Rappler.com