Justice Andres Reyes is a third generation Court of Appeals Justice.

His father, Andres Reyes Sr,

was a former Presiding Justice in the Court of Appeals while his grandfather, Alex Reyes, was a
Justice in the Court of Appeals before being appointed as Justice in the Supreme Court. Aside from
that, he was also a former Solicitor General and Secretary of Justice, and was part of the committee
who drafted the Revised Penal Code.

When asked if he was in a way pressured to follow the footsteps of his father and grandfather, Justice
Reyes admitted that he was into economics and history before he took up law. He was studying
Economics in St. Mary’s College of California, and was accepted for an MBA program in University
of Southern California. His initial plan was to take an MBA, then go for Masters in Economics and
eventually pursue a doctorate in Economics. However, he was told by his mother to go back to the
Philippines and pursue law.

He decided to pursue law in the Ateneo because he wanted to go to a school with Catholic education.
At that time, he was a working student and had to manage his time between studying law and
handling 500 employees as Vice-President of a Company. According to him, it was challenging but
manageable, and that persistence, time management and hard work was his key in surviving law
school. He added, “when he enters something, he finishes it and tries to excel in it.”

Justice Andres Reyes passed the bar in 1978. After the results came out, he worked as a prosecutor
and later as Senior Prosecutor of the Office of the Tanodbayan. In 1987, he was appointed judge of
the Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 61 of Makati, and thereafter was appointed judge of the
Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 75 of San Mateo, Rizal. He was appointed Court of Appeals justice
by former President Estrada in 1999 and was promoted to presiding justice in 2010 by former
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

When he was appointed Presiding Justice, he devoted his time to address the problems in the Court
of Appeals, particularly reducing the number of pending cases in their dockets. According to him, he
used to complain about the government, and now finally he is in a position to address his concerns
and do something about it. He would come in at eight in the morning and leave by five in the
afternoon. He used his background in economics and accounting in coming up with innovations in
the Court of Appeals. The most notable ones were his picture-inventory and his dashboard which
was later incorporated in the Court of Appeals Case Management Information System. He was also
keen on improving the appearance of the Court. When he first sat as the Presiding Justice, he had
the whole Court renovated, he had the third and fourth floors of the main building reconstructed, he
had the walls repainted every six months and many others. According to him, the physical
appearance of the Court is also important as it reflects the integrity of the Court.

To organize the pending cases in the CA, he invented a dashboard where each Justices would have
a table of the cases they handle. This table shows the number of their pending cases which are
categorized depending on their status, and when clicked, reflects the cases titles behind the
numbers. The cases are also properly recorded that you could immediately see other important
details such as the names of the counsels and the record of pleadings filed including the dates when
they were filed. According to him, this proved helpful because before they would only have someone
take an inventory of the cases and would normally just subtract if a case was already decided, and
add when a new one gets shuffled. However, there were no case titles behind the numbers presented
and therefore it was difficult to immediately identify the cases they were handling. Moreover, with the
dashboard, they can immediately see the progress of the cases and could immediately check
whether their case load is decreasing or not.

Another problem Justice Reyes wanted to address is the issue on lost files. Because of this he came
up with a photo-inventory where a case folder is photographed with a newspaper as its background.
This folder is photographed whenever it is taken from the case files. The purpose of the newspaper
is to document the date when the photograph was taken. Therefore, should a particular folder get
lost, the staff would have an idea how the case folder looks like, and the date it was last documented.
This helps them trace back events to figure out more or less how and when it got lost.
When asked what keeps him motivated in what he does, he responded that seeing the numbers go
down gives him the strength and the drive to continuously seek everyone’s cooperation in the
disposition of cases in the CA. As a matter of fact, the decrease in numbers gives everyone in the
Court of Appeals confidence and pride. In 2010, the year he was appointed as Presiding Justice, the
courtwide pending cases in Manila, Cebu and Cagayan de Oro was 25,781. Today, as he leaves the
court, he was able to reduce that number to 18,541, and of the cases submitted for decision now,
80% are less than one year old. Also, the CA is now able to dispose off cases within the 12-month
period as stated in the Rules of Court. There is no doubt that it was only a matter of time when
Justice Andy Reyes would be promoted as Justice in the Supreme Court. Not only did he come from
a family of Justices, he also contributed much in the case management of the Court of Appeals.

“Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Andres B. Reyes, Jr’s tenure as a Presiding Justice can be
considered as the Golden Age of the Court of Appeals”
-Atty. Teresita Marigomen, Clerk of Court

“The Court has done a stellar job with regard to case disposal, docket management and system
upgrades under the able leadership of PJ Reyes. The dashboard and computerized monitoring of
cases conceptualized by PJ Reyes have now been adopted by the Supreme Court for the rest of the
courts in the country.”
-Justice Elihu A. Ybañez, Court of Appeals

“PJ Andy is a very hard act to follow. He is an innovator, a trailblazer who would stop at nothing and
would move heaven and earth to achieve his goals for the good of the Court.”
-Justice Mariflor Punzalan-Castillo, Court of Appeals

“He led the Court of Appeals to a new phase for which he will always be remembered”
-Ret. Associate Justice Bienvenido Reyes