President’s Corner

Dear Fellow Manila Rotarians,

A Blessed and Prosperous New Year to one and all! Before our club adjourned our meetings for 2018 to enjoy the Yuletide Season with family and loved ones, we ended our 2018 activities with a bang because of a very successful Christmas Party at the Golden Ballroom 2 of OKADA MANILA in Parañaque City where we enjoyed the sumptuous dinner, the excitement of winning raffle prizes, showcasing our dancing prowess, and, most of all, savored rekindling ties of yesteryears which is really the essence of the Christmas season.

On this note, I wish to thank Chairman AT Jason Ong, Co-Chair DE/Treasurer Nicky Villaseñor and their team for organizing this event and for gamely hosting the bubbly evening program as well as for discovering innate auctioning talent in the person of Rtn. Mike Ozaeta which got PT Jun Follosco taking home the Pacquiao gloves to the tune of Php 30,000.00. I likewise wish to express my profound gratitude to all Manila Rotarians who donated prizes and attended the event to be one with us on this joyous occasion.

With respect to the Centennial Celebrations front, all systems are in full swing as your Centennial Steering Committee began the year with a meeting last January 3, 2019 at Chef Jessie in Rockwell Club where we discussed the Centennial Week Schedule, the program flow, assigned the responsibilities of the different committees involved and resolved to meet atleast twice a week or much often as the day of reckoning approaches. The week begins with a Welcome Reception and Art Exhibit at the World Trade Center chaired by PD Phillip Ong where artworks of children from Hospicio de San Jose will be sold to generate funds.

We likewise added a centennial project to our list. The Save Manila Bay Project, initiated by DE/Dir. Bobby Joseph and supported by the undersigned in consultation with former Manila Rtn. Atty. Antonio “Tony” Oposa and Rtn. Bobit Avila of the Rotary Club of Cebu, is a centennial project in collaboration with the Manila Yacht Club where a persuasive follow up on the Local Government Units with respect to waste management by way of waste segregation and facilitation of sewerage treatment will be undertaken. The treatment will be undertaken for free by Maynilad and Manila Water, which both receive direct payments from homeowners and business owners’ water bills for the purpose of sewerage treatment. This is chaired by the project’s proponent, DE/Dir. Bobby Joseph.

With respect to REAP, we just remitted last December 21, 2018 to PLM, Php 200,000.00 to cover for the months of November and December 2018 of our REAP scholars. On this note, I earnestly appeal to all of you as we need more benefactors for this worthwhile project.

Our Rotary Club of Manila Centennial Chorale Competition made a significant breakthrough with the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement last December 17, 2018 at the DepEd office in Pasig City where no less than Secretary Leonor Briones signed it. In a related matter, the Chorale Competition Committee will be choosing the top 5 chorale groups and the best song on January 29, 2019 in Dagupan City.

With respect to the fellowship front, our World Famous Music Chorale has been very instrumental in generating much needed substantial funds for our club through its various Christmas Carollings. Likewise, I wish to thank Former Speaker of the House of Representatives Rtn. Joe de Venecia for inviting us to be one with him on his birthday celebration last December 26, 2018 at the Sampaguita Garden where many of us attended.

With respect to the community service front, I wish to thank PD Phillip Ong and Rtn. Zdenek Jankovsky in leading a team of Manila Rotarians who brought Christmas cheers to the Special Children and Elderly of Hospicio de San Jose last December 13, 2018 in Manila. Gratitude likewise goes to SDG/PP Frank Evaristo who graciously donated the meals for that occasion.

With respect to club administration, our Board of Directors held a special meeting last January 3, 2018 to cast the club’s vote for the District Governorship for RY 2021-2022 and to tackle other matters of paramount concern.

With respect to international relations, I wish to invite everyone to register for the 2019 Rotary International Convention in Hamburg, Germany while rates are still reasonable. This likewise presents a last minute opportunity to invite Rotarians from all over the world to attend our centennial culminating activities which happen a few weeks thereafter.

Today, we welcome 2019 with renewed hopes for our country and the world as Mr. Jose Isidro “Lito” Camacho, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Credit Suisse Asia Pacific, who himself was a former Secretary of the Department of Energy and a former Secretary of the Department of Finance, gives his fearless forecasts with a talk, entitled, “A Perspective on the Global and Philippine Economy”.

Without doubt, these are colossal undertakings entailing our unwavering commitment in furtherance of Service Above Self. Indeed, 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 undertake as we continue our fidelity to the fundamentals of Rotary in living our everyday lives.

And lastly, I wish to thank the Board of Directors and Executive Officers, Members and Staff for the unwavering support they have given to the leadership of the Rotary Club of Manila which led to a fruitful 2018 for all of us.