President’s Corner

Greetings to all my Fellow Manila Rotarians!

My hope is that all of you who are reading this are in good health, good spirits and well! As we face yet another week of tenterhooks in navigating through these latest “tidal wave”-high CoVid- 19 rates, I hope we are all doing our part in keeping safe while on paranoid mode.

The past few days have been quite fruitful for the club. PP Susing Pineda, who is now Chairman of the Dana Asia-Grameen Rotary Club of Manila project, presented to the members the salient points of this livelihood project that is well on its way through the engagement of the Grameen and Kabisig Groups. Project Chairman PP Susing Pineda, with PP Teddy Ocampo’s participation, ramped up this project several months ago and was able to get very substantial funding from Dana Australia. Kudos to you PP Susing!!! This is, indeed, one milestone project towards achieving our theme this year, “Serve to Change Lives”!

The other day, RCManila Foundation, Inc. Chairman Hermie Esguerra kicked off the organizational meeting between MMDA, Philippine Dental Association (PDA) and Rotary Club of Manila for the engagement of members to join the army of vaccinators in the Greater Metro Manila area. As was intimated to us by MMDA Chairman Benhur Abalos during his talk with us, not only are we lacking in vaccines, but, lately, the ones administering the vaccines are rapidly unable to cope with the demand of vaccinations. RCManila Foundation, Inc. Chairman Hermie Esguerra offered the help of the PDA (thanks to DGE Joyce Ambray for the connection) to boost the number of inoculators. With the appointment of Sec. Reggie Yu as Chairman of this Special Project Committee, I am confident that the Rotary Club of Manila can coordinate the very vital task of supplying additional inoculators through the gracious participation of PDA and MMDA.

Last week, we had a very interesting talk from our very own PD Rico Domingo on his talk about the travails of our interests in the West Philippine Sea. A wake up call for those who have not paid too much attention on the realities of what is really going on out there and how we, as a country, are faring on it. Today, we have no less than Associate Justice Antonio Carpio (Ret.) to give us his very well- researched and valued point of view on the matter.

A courtesy reminder goes to all our members who have yet to update their membership dues. Please do so soon! We have the elections coming up and we would like everyone to be able to vote for the future leaders of our beloved organization.

Another reminder, please step up our individual efforts on our drive, “Each One, Bring One”. Let’s crank out the short list soon! Each One, Bring One!!! Let’s do this!!!

The loss of a member of our family is truly heartbreaking as I ask all of you to pray for the eternal repose of the soul of Rtn. Jack Bautista, our Sight Conservation Chairman for many years, who passed away last August 24, 2021. His passing left big void in our club, especially, the medico-surgical missions.

Until next week, stay safe, God bless and protect us all!

Humbly yours in Rotary,