Remembering Don Paco

District Publications Deputy Chief of Staff to the District Governor, Rotary Club of Manila

The day was October 24, 2016. Doing my usual chores of checking our Rotary Club of Manila Viber group, I was shocked at the announcement I saw. The man I looked up to in Rotary has gone to the Great Beyond. The last frontier of the district’s golden era is gone. Francisco Delgado, known to many of our colleagues at the Rotary Club of Manila as “Don Paco”, a centenarian of wit and excellence, is now an eternal gem lingering in the heavens of Service Above Self in the company of Paul Harris.

Being in the oldest Rotary club in Asia, I have learned to accept death in pell mell fashion. With many of our fine gentlemen, captains of industry to say the least and who belong to the creme de la creme of Manila’s who’s who, in their nostalgic moments, death has become an event in waiting. But, then again, while I accept this bitter reality of guessing who is next in line, I would rather dwell on the bits of wisdom I have imbibed from the Rotary of past I soon discovered.

The year was 2005. Still reeling from the untimely passing of my father whose dream was to be a Rotarian and whose fondness for the lowliest of people was his greatest asset, my anointment into the Rotary world would soon find the light of dawn. Constant chance meetings with a family friend who happened to be my mom’s protege in the field of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Cesar Ubaldo, then the incumbent President of the Rotary Club of Manila for Rotary Year 2005-2006 and now, Chief of Staff to the District Governor, drew repeated proddings from him to submit my curriculum vitae which would soon find its way in the stringent screening process, Asia’s oldest club is known for.

After a gruelling but necessary ordeal, i was soon ripe for Rotary information where I was greeted with the biggest smile I have ever seen from a Rotarian dignitary in the person of the late PDG Romy del Rosario and the late PP Tito Gupit. The ABC’s of Rotary was a gush of water smoothly flowing down as I quickly assimilated as much information as I could.

Then came induction day. It was a like stepping into a daunting room of CEO’s ready to devour your every step at the Shangri-La Makati at noon of the 6th of October, 2005. Clad in my best suit, I felt like a lost kid in a sea of hustlers. At the tender age of 32 where the average of my club then ran into the high 80’s, Rotary seemed a lost cause.

Then, the magic of wisdom took its natural course. A few weeks into the Rotary movement, I happened to sit down at the only available chair left in one of the tables at the Rotary Club of Manila meeting where I was next to a seemingly reserved fellow, who, sporting a friendly grin while wearing his trademark spectacles with his caregiver next to him, took away all my fears of Rotary. After exchanging the usual pleasantries characteristic of Rotary camaraderie, nostalgia filled the air. He began to utter the stories of Rotary everyone wanted to hear. From the pride of being a Rotarian in ways of Service Above Self which he gladly concretized to feed my then feeble mind to being prompt in meetings and the importance of attendance as well as the need to make up and a simple way of looking at the value of karma in giving to The Rotary Foundation.

Mild mannered in his ways sans the intimidating demeanor of top brass CEO’s, I began to embrace the enigma that is Rotary. Little did I know that I was getting first hand information from one of the gems of Rotary International, having been a President of our club (RY 1957-1958), District Governor of then District 305, a Rotary International President’s Representative and a Rotary International Vice President.

Don Paco, wherever you are, thank you for the wisdom, thank you for the friendship despite our wide age range and most of all, thank you for bringing out the Rotarian in me. You may be gone for now but your humble ways will forever stay in the heart of a young man whose fears of Rotary turned into a life of Service Above Self. Know that whatever lofty positions I have attained in my club and presently, in the district remains your lasting legacy to a fellow Manila Rotarian whose life you have touched as he now threads the road to Rotary Serving Humanity.

Rest well in the wheels of Rotary as the Great Judge rewards you for a life of giving and a life you dedicated for others.