It is still a sad day not only for the local entertainment industry but also for the class 1975 of the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Arts and Letters.
It is because the Miss Teen Philippines of the late sixties Geena Zablan has died of liver cancer.
Geena was a product of "Eskuwelahang Munti," an art school on television in the 60s and 70s founded by impresario Tino Lapuz, the famous dad of equally famed siblings Tina and Romy Lapuz.
Tina was a perennial screen villainess of Nora Aunor like "Munting Santa," "Tomboy Nora," among others.
"Eskuwelahang Munti" was a platform for live shows on acting, dancing, singing and other artistic endeavors mentored by Ka Tino.
One of Zablan's contemporaries was Edgar Mortiz.
Geena was also a contract star of Tagalog Ilang-Ilang Productions.
That was the time the actress was also enrolled at the UST Faculty of Arts and Letters.
"Grabe. Pag may shooting ako, pagkagaling ng school after classes, sa shooting naman ako (Incredible. When there were shoots, after classes I went straight to the sets)," she chuckled as she recalled her past.
When Zablan got tired of acting, she went into modelling and had San Pablo City beauty queen-actress as a buddy.
She also had connections with Vilma Santos, Jean Saburit, Jessica Pica, among her contemporaries.
But Azenith was Geena's mostly physical companion in many adventures in showbiz and outside of it.
Unfortunately, Briones wasn't able to pay her last respects to Geena because she was in Thailand during the model-actress' death.
Some of Zablan's mourners were Cory Quirino, Robert Castañeda, Cindy de Leon, Gem Martinez, Willy Chu etc.
She was 70.
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