Helena Benitez

Helena Zoila Tirona Benitez (June 27, 1914 – July 14, 2016) was a Filipina academic and administrator of the Philippine Women's University. She served in the Senate of the Philippines from 1967 until Congress was closed when martial law was declared in 1972, and at the Batasang Pambansa from 1978 until it was abolished in 1986. Benitez also founded the Bayanihan Dance Company.

Benitez died on July 14, 2016, aged 102.

Early life

Benitez was born in Manila to Conrado Benitez, a pensionado to the United States and a member of the 1935 Constitutional Convention, and Francisca Tirona who was an educator and co-founder of Philippine Women's College in 1919.