President’s Corner

Dear Fellow Manila Rotarians,

Last week, we had the privilege of having our Honorary Manila Rotarian His Excellency Daniel Pruce, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the Republic of the Philippines as Guest of Honor and Speaker where he delved extensively on the present state of British-Philippine relations. It was an enlightening talk that got our members engaged in the open forum that followed.

With respect to international relations, I continuously invite you to join our respective delegations to the 49th Anniversary and Fund Raising Ball of the Rotary Club of Kowloon East and the 70th Charter Anniversary of the Rotary Club of Taipei. Attending these important milestones of our sister clubs affords us the opportunity to reciprocally invite them to take part in the culminating activities of our centennial celebration.

With respect to the New Generations Service, I wish to invite each one of you to attend the Joint Induction and Handover Ceremonies of the Rotaract Club of De La Salle University Manila and the Rotaract Club of De La Salle-College of St. Benilde, entitled, “INSPIRE”, on November 17, 2018 at Samar-Leyte Function Room of the Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila. Registration starts at 5:30 pm. Let us support our Rotaractors in this endeavor as they have always been supportive of our club’s projects.

With respect to fellowship, I wish to announce that our Christmas Party will take place on December 13, 2018, 6:00 pm at the Grand Ballroom 3, Coral Wing Lobby of OKADA MANILA in Parañaque City. Let us all attend and share the Christmas spirit with everyone as this likewise serves as a welcome respite from our busy centennial year.

With respect to our centennial projects, we just formalized our partnership with the City of Manila on our economic and community development centennial project, “Sari-Saring Aralan”, where our other partners are the Ayala Foundation and Grameen Australia Philippines, last November 13, 2018 in a meeting with Secretary to the Mayor Atty. Edward Serapio at the Mayor’s Board Room in Manila. The following day, November 14, 2018, we launched our “Sari-Saring Aralan” project at the Sari-Sari Store of Aling Nila in Barangay 50 under Barangay Chairman Rommel Galima, Tondo, Manila where project partners were in attendance which included Ayala Foundation President Ruel Maranan and Ayala Foundation Director Joanna Duarte as well as Rtn. Lutz Kunack and Secretary-General Rtn. Romy Nones. It gave us so much fulfillment as we saw the look of gratitude in the faces of more than fifty (50) out-of-school youth beneficiaries of our project. On this note, I wish to thank Rtn. Lutz Kunack for providing food and refreshments for the launching of this project.

On the other hand, “A Legacy of Rotary Service” project is now into the details of its activities for the entire day after it held a workshop meeting last November 9, 2018 at the Taipan Room of the Tower Club in Makati City under the leadership of Chairman DE/BLA Amading Valdez. The activities under “A Legacy of Rotary Service” include the “Rotary Club of Manila Centennial Chorale Competition” where officials of DepEd likewise took part in the workshop as well as the “Centennial Awards” Committee which is in charge of the Rotary Success Stories to be awarded.

With respect to REAP, we want more Rotarians to adopt more students to sustain our initiative to support our PLM and PUP students until graduation day. Hence, I encourage everyone to do their share in making our centennial projects an overwhelming success.

Today, we welcome our very own Rtn. Tony Lopez, Founder, Chairman, President and CEO of BizNewsAsia Philippines, Inc., as he gives us his take in the burning and pressing issues of the day that would showcase his stature as the quintessential journalist he has always been.

Indeed, all these are colossal undertakings that entail our unwavering passion for Service Above Self. Let us remember that great things in Rotary are never done by a single individual, but, by a team of Rotarians, moving together towards a common goal. Under ONE CENTURY, towards ONE MISSION and in furtherance of ONE ROTARY, the best is yet to come. Let us all BE THE INSPIRATION in everything we collectively accomplish in the service of Rotary.