One Rotary, One Philippines, One for Marawi

"Go big or go home" could be the slogan of Centennial Directors-elect Raffy Alunan and Jackie Rodriguez. When they saw the scope of the devastation in Marawi on their fact-finding personal visit last month, they immediately began discussions about not what they saw, but rather what must be done. They did not see international relief organizations planning and acting on relief needed already, let alone for the recovery and rebuilding that will surely be among the largest in the contemporary history of the country. They also knew that the Philippine government was still focused on winning the conflict and needed extensive immediate support and even more post-conflict. They saw that the relief in place was grossly inadequate, with more human suffering than they could bear.

Sensing that the scale was more than what one club could accomplish on its own, even one as large and prominent as our own, they started a discussion group with Rotarian governors from throughout the Philippines, as well as a small, core group that included a few non-Rotarian leaders that they knew to be men and women of action, not just words. This group has met a few times, gathering information and assessing the

The Rotary Foundation itself is in fact the only international five-star charity that is not focused on relief. Instead, we have our six areas of focus. However, the clubs of Rotary routinely undertake small-scale relief operations around the world. The fact that we in Philippines Rotary have not been organized before on a national level to undertake such initiatives was no issue, nor even a question asked "Why not?" Instead, it was just like Nike's slogan, "Let's do it!"

On Monday afternoon this week, the core group met at Infinity Suites in Salcedo Village to review progress and plan its next steps. Participating were Chairman DE Raffy Alunan, Vice-chair DE Jackie Rodriguez, RID 3810 Governor Loy Cosico, PDG Lyne Abanilla, DGE Rudy Bediones, "Great President" (GP) Datu Haron Ali, Charter President (CP) Yussuf Makalangcom, PE/Dir Susing Pineda, VPE/Dir Lance Masters, Mr. Juan Montel, Sister Eva Fidella, Mr. Hans Palacios, Mr. Inaki Jose, and Dr. Sharon Reyes.

The council of Governors of all ten districts in the Philippines has already approved this initiative, promising Rotarian support throughout the country. Sub-committees and clusters are being formed for various engagements, each usually headed by a Rotarian. Among these are Committees for Hygiene facilities, emergency housing, medical and dental missions, prostheses and other mobility devices, fund development, logistics and transportation, and so forth.

On this Thursday September 21, following our regular meeting, the RCM Board of Directors is holding a special meeting to approve creation of this task force as an official committee of RCM, so that it can become an important element in Philippine Rotary based in our very own mother club. Further, this concept can become the basis of long-term capacity to plan for and respond to other situations requiring a countrywide Rotarian response to a wide range of large-scale needs, including various calamities.

Congratulations and thanks to Raffy and Jackie for thinking big and leading Rotary Club of Manila into a new area of prominence and Service above Self. This truly exemplifies our international motto this year, "Rotary: Making a Difference."

RC Manila stalwarts visited soldiers wounded in the Marawi conflict. We went to the Philippines Army General Hospital at Ft Bonifacio. There were more than 200 wounded and in recovery assembled in the hospital multipurpose room. The event was conceived by DE Raffy Alunan with strong collaboration from DE Jackie Rodriguez, and I joined the team to help coordinate moderate, and get members of our World Famous to possibly sing, although it came together so fast we didn't have time for advance rehearsal. We were so surprised at how happy they were to welcome us. They said we were the very first group to visit since the start of the conflict. Most of these patients are Scout Rangers, the finest in the service of their country. Most were suffering live fire wounds from gunshots, artillery, bombings, shrapnel and so forth. All of us gathered thanked these brave men for their service, their sacrifices and their suffering, and our gratitude for defending all of us from a potentially devastating specter for the country.

We found three patients with birthdays that very day, and ten in September, so we improvised our RCM birthday song to make it fit the occasion. We reached in our pockets and gave each of them ₱1,000 as a token of our appreciation, and for being separated from their families on their natal day. We had hoped to bring the Binibining Pilipinas 2018 beauty contestants but there are 57 of them, which the Army thought too many. (Too much of a good thing?) So we asked for ten volunteers, and got two truly lovely young ladies from Zamboanga to join. There were more selfies and hugs than I've ever seen at one time. Look at the smiles on the faces of the soldiers in these pictures!

Through the recommendations of DGE Rudy Bediones, we hired Filipino pop guitarist "Lord Brian." Brian performs regularly at Rudy's son Paulo's Punta Madala night club and performed songs that everyone loved. He also accompanied a volunteer vocalist from the wounded warrior patients, to the wildly enthusiastic applause of his compatriots. Then PAT Mohammed Aslam's talented son Zaid played guitar and sang, too! We asked for more volunteer vocalists, and likewise rewarded them. DGE Rudy belted out his signature feel-good song, "What a wonderful world," in the style of Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong as the final vocal offering.

As you may be aware, DE Raffy is also a corporate director of PepsiCo Philippines, and the Pepsi PR team generously brought cases and cases of Pepsi beverages as well as small mountains of Frito Lay snacks. The soldiers were thrilled to leave with arms full of snacks and drinks, smiles on their faces from a delightful afternoon given to them by the good men of RCM.

Participating were DE Raffy Alunan, DE Jackie Rodriguez, PDG Obet Pagdanganan, DGE Rudy Bediones and spouse Sharon Hughes Bediones, Pres. Jimmie Policarpio, PE/Dir Susing Pineda, VPE/Dir Lance Masters, De/Dir Caloy Reyes and son H.Reyes, DE/PD Albert Alday, PD Oscar del Rosario, PAT Mohammed Aslam and son Zaid, Rtn Karl Leung and Rtn Vee David. We were rewarded for our participation with a great buffet feast at Kebab n Curry on Jupiter, hosted by owner PAT Mohammed Aslam and his wife Hannah. Oh, love those authentic flavors! Many thank you's to those who were able to participate on such short notice. We're planning more activities, including relief efforts for those displaced in Marawi.