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Opinion

Atty. Winefreda A. Geonzon St., Cebu City

CEBUPEDIA - Clarence Paul Oaminal - The Freeman

It is the formerly unnamed street in Barangay Lahug from the corner of Salinas Drive leading towards San Miguel of Barangay Apas, Cebu City.

The Cebu City Council, on motion of Councilor Arnulfo R. Ravina seconded by Councilors Eleno V. Abellana and Clemente G. Rama on August 19, 1991, enacted City Ordinance No. 1405 naming an unnamed street in honor of "Atty. Winefreda A. Geonzon".

Atty. Geonzon, was a prominent lawyer, Founder and Executive Director of the FREE-LAVA Inc.  (Free Legal Assistance Volunteers Association) who lived a noble, humanitarian and exemplary life. She was born on October 8, 1941 to spouses, Ismael Estanero and Eufrania Pelayo Amit. She finished elementary at the Bogo Central School and high school at the Cebu Roosevelt Memorial College, Bogo, Cebu. She is a product of the University of the Visayas College of Law Batch 1976.

Her pre-Law course was Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education at the Cebu Normal College, now the Cebu Normal University. Her course prepared her to eventually be the savior of the youths of Cebu.

She championed for the rights of victims of human rights, to the indigent prisoners, this was flamed when she became the Legal Aid Director of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines Cebu Chapter in 1978. She pioneered the massive organization of community-based Boy Scouting Movement of the out-of-school youths and children of poor families in depressed areas of Cebu. She courageously visited the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center at Apas (a few meters from the street named after her). The city jail has since been transferred to Barangay Kalunasan.

She was conferred the International Award by the Right Livelihood Foundation Inc. in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1984. In 1987, she had involved 26 community organizations in support of her advocacy.

Winefreda's siblings like her, served God and country in their own ways: Engr. Romeo Amit Estanero, topped the Civil Engineering Board Exams in 1966 (a product of Cebu Institute of Technology, now CITU) and a Doctor of Structural Engineering, Atty. Lourdes Amit Mendoza-Cortes was an assistant regional state prosecutor, Herminia Amit Mendoza-Navarro and Rosita Amit Mendoza-Hortilana were public school teachers, the two elder sisters, Caridad Amit Mendoza and Beatrice Amit Mendoza, sacrificed finishing college and instead helped their mother (Eufrania) in rearing the other five children as their father (Ismael) died during World War II.

Winefreda died of cancer in July 25, 1990, but her spirit continues to live with the Cebuanos through a street rightfully named after her. A person who is truly missed and desperately wanted in a time where injustice and street children aplenty, where a heroine and a champion is the only answer, that was "Atty. Winefreda A. Geonzon", in her lifetime.

 

ABELLANA AND CLEMENTE G

AMIT

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE

BAGONG BUHAY REHABILITATION CENTER

BARANGAY KALUNASAN

BARANGAY LAHUG

BOGO CENTRAL SCHOOL

BOY SCOUTING MOVEMENT

CEBU

GEONZON

WINEFREDA A

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