Dempsey Reyes, 29, a gutsy reporter who laughed on the beat

Dempsey Reyes was the most unserious friend, but he was also the most serious reporter.

Dempsey, a reporter of the Inquirer, died on April 26 at 29 years old. His sudden passing shocked his friends, colleagues, and sources in the industry. The Inquirer said he died due to respiratory failure after a brain hemorrhage.

Dempsey started on the defense beat when he was with The Manila Times. He covered the Office of the Vice President for Inquirer before moving to the Ombudsman and Sandiganbayan beats, his final assignment. A beat, in journalism slang, is the assignment of a reporter.

One of his colleagues on the Ombudsman beat, Glen Juego of GMA DZBB, resurfaced a video of Dempsey doing a serious spiel about the flood control cases, only for him to say after: “Ang paborito nating Mars! Camille Prats!” For the chronically online, this television segment where actress Camille Pratts is introduced has become a widely-shared meme.

If you were to only see that video, you’d think that Dempsey was the most unserious, which he was. But, on the beat, he was known for confronting officials with the hard questions.

“Si Dempsey, kung alam niyang malaki ang istorya, [he would say] ‘Magtanong ka sa mismong briefing, tapos i-confront mo ang sources.’ Si Dempsey kasi [he believes], kapag alam mong tama ka, ipaglaban mo,” said Dexter Cabalza, Dempsey’s fellow reporter at the Inquirer.

(With Dempsey, if he knows it’s a big story, his mode is, “Ask the question in the briefing, confront the sources.” With Dempsey, if he knows he is right, he’ll fight for it.)

That trait got him summoned to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in 2025, when the agency was investigating Vice President Sara Duterte for the threats she made against the President and the First Lady during the now-controversial Zoom press conference. He was one of the reporters who asked the Vice President a question during that briefing.

Dempsey was not easily fazed. His baptism of fire, after all, was with the Defense Press Corps (DPC), where he faced and confronted generals.

Jairo Bolledo, a reporter of Rappler, said he remembers Dempsey fondly when they were both with the DPC. Bolledo, then, was an intern for the Inquirer. “‘Yung mga ayaw na question, siya ang nagtatanong (he asked the hard questions),” he said.

Reyes was also good at sourcing, said Krixia Subingsubing, a former Inquirer reporter. When Reyes was hired for the Inquirer, Subingsubing said, they thought he was a good addition to the team.

“Bina-value ng Inquirer palagi ay depth of sourcing, and he clearly met that,” said Subingsubing. (The Inquirer values depth of sourcing, and he clearly met that [criterion].)

Dempsey loved covering politics, said Kathleen de Villa, his colleague at the Inquirer.

“Dun siya magaling, dun ‘yung forte niya as a very aggressive at palabang reporter. Alam niya na dun siya magta-thrive,” said de Villa.

(That’s what he was good at, that was his forte as a very aggressive and gutsy reporter. He knew that’s where he’d thrive.)

He laughed on the beat

Dempsey seemed soft-spoken at first, said Llanesca Panti, a reporter of GMA News Online. When they met in 2016, he was a media relations officer. “Dempsey was warm and soft spoken then, exactly how a media relations officer should be, but I did not feel that he was being that way just because it was his job,” said Panti.

“He was genuinely warm and generous, with transcripts, documents, resource persons, Mariah Carey memes and kanal (gutter) humor, but he is definitely not soft spoken! He is so loud and funny!” said Panti, who was also Reyes’ colleague at the Manila Times.

I can attest to that. I first met Dempsey in 2019, when a bunch of young reporters formed a very loose club we called “Dong Juan,” named after a restaurant where we all gathered for the first time. The second club outing was a hole-in-the-wall in Makati, where Dempsey “presided” over an inebriated role-playing session of what we would do if we were government officials.

Dempsey took on the role of Senator Eva Estrada Kalaw, which sent everybody hooting, laughing away all our worries at the time when so many news organizations were being attacked.

I’d see Dempsey in many such gatherings afterwards. We were never beatmates, but we were always attendees of camaraderie gatherings of Filipino reporters.

Dempsey is one of my favorite go-to people to message if I needed to rant against a questionable official, or a questionable conduct. We railed against red-taggers, but minutes after we’d be talking about the new Taylor Swift album.

When I learned of Dempsey’s passing, I checked what was our last message to each other. It was Dempsey congratulating me because my favorite housemates won the Pinoy Big Brother: Collab edition. Dempsey liked Will Ashley and Bianca de Vera, or the loveteam “Willca.” In fact, many Willca shippers sent their condolences when news of his death was posted on X.

“It really gave me a glimpse into how he was outside journalism. He had passions and hobbies,” said Subingsubing.

It was just one among his many passions. Dempsey wanted us to form a run club, he challenged us to run 10 kilometers in just one hour. I regret now that we never formed the run club.

A role he cherished

Dempsey also loved films, said his college friend Loraine Barretto.

“Every Oscars season, he’d always have something to say about who he was rooting for, who he wanted to win, and who absolutely didn’t deserve it,” said Barretto.

She and Dempsey graduated with a degree in mass communication from the Far Eastern University. Barretto described him as a very supportive friend.

“[I will miss] his support every time I worked on a film. He always reminded me that I could do it and that I’d finish everything well — that I just needed to believe in myself and keep going,” said Barretto.

I checked my Viber if we also had messages there. We did. Dempsey asked if I wanted to visit the set of Kip Oebanda’s Bar Boys: After School. Not because Will Ashley and some PBB housemates were there, but so I could play a cameo as myself — a reporter.

He was persistent. He asked again and again. I refused again and again, and explained I have sub-zero acting skills. Dempsey proceeded to do the cameo.

I also know he tried to make the best out of a bad situation at the NBI when he realized he was going to be on TV Patrol that night — by making sure he looked good on TV.

I am glad he is immortalized on screen in those ways.

Whether in reality or in fiction, he can be remembered in the role he cherished — as a journalist. – Rappler.com