Mario Joel Tolentino Reyes (born 1952) is a Filipino politician who served as Governor of Palawan.
[1] Reyes left his hometown after he was linked to the death of a friend, Danilo Salta Cruz, during a hunting trip; which was recorded as an accident by the police.
Around that time he was already protege of House Speaker Ramon Mitra, a rival of then governor Salvador Socrates.
[1] Reyes first became the Governor of Palawan when he assumed the position under an acting capacity when Salvador Socrates died in a plane crash on July 2, 2000.
[6] Reyes signed on November 25, 2008 a 25-year moratorium on issuing permits large and small scale mining via Resolution No.
[7] Ineligible to run again, Reyes backed the candidacy of Abraham Mitra for governor in the 2010 election.
[19] Reyes was released on January 4, 2018 after the Court of Appeals (CA) cleared him of the murder charges.
[21] In 2023, the Supreme Court ordered for the continuation of the Ortega murder trial and Reyes' re-arrest.
[24] In October 2024, Reyes moved for bail and hospital detention with the Quezon City Regional Trial Court anchored on a medical complication.