Draft:Renato Reyes (activist)

Renato Reyes, nicknamed Nato, is a Filipino activist who is currently serving as the President of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN or New Patriotic Alliance). He is also part of the International League of Peoples' Struggle (ILPS) in the Philippines.

Activism
Reyes is student-leader from the University of the Philippines Diliman who entered the school in 1992. He became the founding chairperson of Anakbayan in 1998 and was the national Secretary-General of the League of Filipino Students from 1997 to 1999.

He joined BAYAN in 2001.

He was charged by the Manila Police District, along with many opposition leaders, of assault, obstruction, and illegal assembly because of the rally done in Mendiola on October 21, 2005. The Commission on Human Rights, however, found no legal basis.

In 2006, he expressed condemnation of the overturning of a court ruling that initially convicted United States Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith of rape of a Filipina at the former U.S. Subic Bay Naval Base. He blamed the Visiting Forces Agreement and then-president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her said subservience to the United States.

In 2007, he called for the investigation and accountability of members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines involved in human rights violations under the presidency of Arroyo. A number of members of BAYAN were killed under her administration. Reyes also urged the review of budget towards the military. He was among those who encouraged mobilizations against the late president.

In 2015, he organized a protest march in front of the Chinese Consulate in Makati against incursions in the West Philippine Sea. He spoked in the rally together with Elmer Labog.

On October 19, 2016, he organized an anti-imperialist rally against continued United States domination in front of the US Embassy in Manila. A police van rammed into the protesters and hurt a few as the program was about to end. Reyes denounced the incident, saying that "nothing can justify" the actions done by the police.

During the start of COVID-19 lockdowns in the Philippines, he urged the government for mass testing, immediate distribution of personal protective equipment, and more medical frontliners.

In 2022, he criticized the proposal of Pampanga 3rd District Rep. Aurelio Gonzales, Jr. on charter change, specifically for the extension of the term of the President of the Philippines from six years to five years that can be re-elected once, bringing to a total of ten years. Reyes said that this was a "self-serving proposal." In August 2023, two police from the Quezon City Police District filed criminal complaints against Reyes and BAYAN artist Max Santiago over the burning of effigy of President Marcos Jr. during his 2023 State of the Nation Address for said contributing to air pollution and for said violation of Public Assembly Act. The two asked the Quezon City Prosecutor to junk the criminal complaint. Moreover, the two cited that the police have been targeting against free speech, which is protected under the Constitution.

Reyes has been the subject of massive internet trolling and fake news. In 2018, he certain Facebook profiles spread multiple fake news: that he was a high school dropout that decided to organize rallies in order to earn money, that he was involved in a t-shirt printing scam, that he purchased projectors with marked-up price. On twitter, he said that he has consulted in his legal counsel and this has resulted in the apologies of the ones who posted on facebook. In another instance, social media trolls in 2021 spread misinformation that his son crashed a ₱1.9 million car in Pampanga. Such story was first circulated three years prior when his son was nine-years-old. Earlier the same year, a certain facebook page PWD Rights Philippines circulated a fake post by Reyes badmouthing persons with disabilities in relation to the abrogation of the UP-DND Accord. A year earlier, trolls spread fake news that he was panic-buying at S&R during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines.

Personal life
Reyes is a guitarist. He can also play the piano.