PGA was a lawyer, engineer, newspaper editor-columnist, educator, judge, musician, And he ‘bridged people’ — one reason a Carcar City bridge is named after him.
Passage
Peary G. Aleonar with a granddaughter at the piano, during reception at the wedding of a son, 1985. [All photos in this article from Aleonar files.]
PGA was a lawyer, engineer, newspaper editor-columnist, educator, judge, musician, And he ‘bridged people’ — one reason a Carcar City bridge is named after him.
BY CAECENT NO-OT MAGSUMBOL
(July 2023)
IF Peary G. Aleonar (1926-2004) were alive today, this might not happen yet, said his two children during the unveiling of the bridge sign or marker bearing his name. The ceremony in Carcar City last July 7, 2023 — a major highlight of its Charter Day — gave honor and recognition to a prominent son of Carcar, a widely known judge, journalist, educator and musician.
Dina and Guy (in green shirt), two of PGA’s children, at the bridge-naming ceremony, July 7, 2023, Carcar City.
Aleonar daughter Dina (center) and PGA’s son Guy with writer Caecent Magsumbol.
Dina and Guy Aleonar said their father Judge Peary — PGA to Cebu media — often shrugged off awards and public accolades at the height of his multi-faceted career.
19 years after death
The Cebu Citizens Press Council (CCPC) had proposed to the Carcar City Government to name a street for Judge Peary, submitted in 2017 or 13 years after his death at 78. In 2004, six years after the first proposal was made, the City Council and Mayor Patricio “Patrick” Barcenas approved an ordinance naming a bridge after Aleonar. Finally, in 2023, on a Friday in July — 19 years after PGA’s death — Carcar City held the bridge-naming ceremony as part of the city’s founding anniversary.
His life and works deserved to be remembered, if not immortalized. The Carcar City Council passed unanimously on April 25, 2023 City Ordinance #23-22, “naming the bridge in Baracca, connecting Poblacion II and Poblacion III, Carcar City, Cebu as Judge Peary Aleonar Bridge.”
Judge Peary Aleonar Bridge in Baracca, Carcar City.
Bridge for the voiceless
Judge Peary used to live in Baracca. The Aleonars’ ancestral home was gutted by fire in 2018. The choice of site was significant. In picking a bridge, instead of a street, a Carcar City Council committee compared Aleonar’s accomplishments to a bridge between the voiceless among the people and those who lead and decide in government. Councilor Vicente Escobido said Judge Aleonar was “bridging people.”
The ordinance says, “It is fitting and proper to honor the life and times of Peary Gumersindo Aleonar (1926-2004) who has given pride and honor to Carcar City, an example of the almost boundless reach of human endeavor that any Carcaron can aspire for and pursue, by naming a bridge in Carcar City after him.”
PGA with his wife Trinidad or “Nida” Tapia-Aleonar (1990); with their six children and their respective families.
Engineer, lawyer, journalist, judge…
Judge Peary studied in Carcar, where his parents used to teach until he entered college at the Cebu Institute of Technology (CIT) and finished as a civil engineer. And although he was already an engineer, Aleonar decided to take up law and became a lawyer in 1961, incidentally, the same year Guy, his fifth child, was born.
Already an engineer and lawyer, he also became an educator — a college teacher and dean –and editor of Cebu Advocate, which his cousin Cesar published, and later wrote a column (“Questionnaire”) for The Freeman.
He became a Regional Trial Court judge in Dumaguete City, then in Cebu City. Aleonar’s appointment as a judge came on his birthday on January 13, 1983, the same day his mother, Dolores, died.
PGA started young as a musician. Check what instrument he played (center, second row.]
… Musician and, briefly, politician
He was also a musician, loved to draw, answered queries about anything, was a World War 2 survivor, and more.
Aleonar also tried politics after being pushed by some people but dropped it when he saw that the same people who encouraged him to run for assemblyman were only after personal favors.
He was so dedicated to his work that he often brought it home, working through the night until dawn, on his typewriter and, later, on his computer.
Doting father, grandpa
More than any of his pursuits though, Judge Peary was a good father and, more so, a doting grandfather.
Dina said his dad was a disciplinarian but didn’t impose his wishes, as he allowed his children to choose their own paths and become who they wanted to be. He “simply was supportive.”
He settled quarrels among his children at home like they a judge in the courtroom or a journalist getting both sides of the story.
After retirement from office, Aleonar remained “very sharp” and would even write down and solve quadratic equations with his grandchildren.
The street too, says Mayor Patrick
On Judge Peary not wanting and seeking any recognition, Dina and Guy said their dad and his only brother, a priest, never contested the history of Immaculate Heart of Mary Academy in Minglanilla, Cebu, how it was founded, organized and managed. They said Judge Peary would spend even his money to keep the school going until they let the nuns run the school. Aleonar always wanted to keep a “low profile” but his life and works have inspired not only Carcaranons but many other Cebuanos.
City Mayor Barcenas said Peary Aleonar had brought “so much pride” to their city that his name and memory “deserve more.” The mayor said he also wants also to name after the judge-journalist the street along the bridge once the work to improve it is done. 
Caecent No-ot Magsumbol had worked as sportswriter of The Freeman before joining its main-news coverage. She finished A.B. in mass-communication at St. Theresa’s College in Cebu City.