He initially worked as a teacher, journalist and newspaper publisher. In 1948 he joined the civil service and was posted to the Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York in 1954. He then became Director of the Philippine Information Agency. He was then posted to
Thailand and was Ambassador in
Burma from 1958 to 1962. In 1962 he became Ambassador to
Indonesia. From 1966 to 1970 he served as Ambassador to the
United Kingdom. Reyes then became the
Permanent Representative to the United Nations in
New York. He was Chairman of UNICEF from 1972 to 1974 and President of the
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) 1974. From 1977 to 1982 he was Ambassador to the
People's Republic of China. He was Secretary-General of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations from 1980 to 1982. On July 11, 1994, he was awarded the highest decoration in the Philippine Foreign Service, the Gawad Mabini Award, with the rank of Dakilang Kamanong. ==References==