Filipino among royal guards of King of Spain

Posted at 07/02/2009 7:27 PM | Updated as of 07/02/2009 8:10 PM

A Filipino is one of the members of Spain’s top military force securing King Juan Carlos and Queen Sophia.

Twenty-five years old Benson Reyes has been with the Royal Guard of Spain for seven years now.

Reyes was born and raised in Caloocan.

He is the only Filipino out of the 1,500 elite Royal Guard. The Royal Guard is tagged as the last line of defense of the military in Spain.

Reyes said providing security to the royal couple is no joke especially at this time with the advent of all forms of terrorism.

He added that there are instances when they remain awake at night because of serious attempts by outsiders to penetrate the palace gates.

Reyes finished his military training in Murcia. Because of the big responsibility, Reyes admits the military training and orientation is too rigorous particularly equipment handling.

“Mahirap po. Kapag training, dapat ibibigay mo lahat para makita ka na okay ka. Dito sa Spain mga Royal Guard dapat the best sa lahat ng military,” he said

But Reyes has kind words for the royal couple, saying both have a soft heart for Filipinos and other nationalities.

“Proud siya na na kahit taga ibang bansa may nag-aano sa kanya, kahit hindi po Spanish,” he added.

There are more than 40,000 Filipino workers in Spain, mostly caregivers and in the service sector.

Reyes’s mother, Eva, meanwhile is too proud of what had become of his son.

“Ang kaligayahan hindi kasi nababayaran…kaligayahan na ibinibigay ng anak sa ina,” Reyes mother said.

Reyes has already received numerous citations and recognition from his service as a member of the Royal Guard. Report from Danny Buenafe, ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau, chief

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2 comments

Spain and the United States

I think Spain will accept Filipinos with open arms than the United States... its a shame that a lot of Filipinos fought and died for that country and yet it took them more than 60 years and a Black American President before our veterans received compensation and recognition...

Not many Filipinos even know that the King of Spain once intervened in the Middle East to saved a Filipina... while the United States, on the other hand, when we withdrawn our troops in Iraq in order to save a Filipino driver rebuke us...


Filipino Guard of King of Spain

Many of us still keep on blaming the Spanish colonization even today for our lack of love for our nation when Spaniards have already ceased to control us since a century ago. Spaniards and Filipinos are today both sovereign nations. The Spaniards, our former colonizers have been showing their respect at us as their equal. Indeed our having been separated and independent from Spain in 1898 can be seen in the flesh today. They have even shown their trust by hiring one of us Filipinos as a memeber of their royal security unit.

How far it is from the Americans so worshipped by many of us Filipinos as liberators and benefactors. After 500,000 to 900,000 of us Filipinos died because of their invasion and our resistance against it, they destroyed our heritage and our link to our original nation and replaced them with institutions which transformed us into worshipping dependents on them. Today we remain dependent on them all because of that Heredity Injuring Virus they transmitted into our systems. Today, we remain worshippers of them inspite of their having corrupted the whole of our race and raping of our Filipinas and their atrocities against our people.



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