Treñas boulevard opens tomorrow

By DAVID ISRAEL SINAY

ILOILO City – The newly-constructed road along the Iloilo River from Carpenter’s Bridge in Mandurriao to La Paz districts will be formally opened to the public tomorrow, with a blessing and dedication naming the road to Efrain B. Treñas Boulevard.

A memorial marker will also be erected near the Carpenter’s Bridge.

On July 22, 2009, the Sangguniang Panlungsod passed an ordinance naming the road section Efrain B. Treñas Boulevard in honor of Mayor Jerry Treñas’ father being “one of the more prominent sons of the City and Province of Iloilo.”

The measure aims “to perpetuate the memory of such a distinguished Ilonggo who, during his lifetime, had not only brought honor and prestige to the City and Province of Iloilo but also contributed to our sense of national pride as Filipinos.”

The mayor’s father was a practicing lawyer and law professor. He was a prisoner of war and survivor of the Bataan death march, and later served as one of the commissioners who drafted the 1987 Constitution.

Efrain B. Treñas took his pre-law at the University of San Agustin and studied law at the University of Sto. Tomas.

He passed the Bar exam in 1949 and became a Fellow and Fulbright Scholar of the Academy of American and International Law in Dallas, Texas (1967) and a Fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers (1974).

Treñas was a practicing lawyer from 1949 to 2000, a professor and Dean of the College of Law at the University of Iloilo from 1968 to 2000, professor of the College of Law at the University of San Agustin from 1950 to 1967, and President of the Philippine Association of Law Schools from 1994 to 1995.

He was married to Soledad Perez. Their children are Jose Mari, Jerry (married to Rosalie Sarabia) and Francis (married to Dr. Kristin Gaona). Their grandchildren are Jose Efrain, Quito, Raisa, Carlo, Miguel, Amanda, Jerry Jr. and Paolo.

Efrain B. Treñas was the son of former Senator Potenciano Treñas and Estrella Blancaflor./PN