RCMFI Chairman Alexander P. Cureg’s Address

GOOD afternoon, Esteemed Rotarians and Friends,

As Chairman of RCManila Foundation, Inc., allow me please to share with you some of my experiences as the managing officer of RCMFI.

I am not going to lie to you. I have had a very rough start. That we have administrative problems is putting it mildly. The first task that we had to do was to comply with certain Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) requirements for their monitoring or assessment processes in order for us to sustain our status as an auxiliary or resource agency. Since the foundation’s filing system is in chaos, I had to be resourceful. Partly to comply with DSWD requirements and mostly, in order to standardize operations, I came up with a New Manual of Operations, which I hope is easy to read and understand and simple to follow. I know that serving this organization is merely on a voluntary basis, so I intended this Manual to be applied meaningfully throughout the organization and not just for compliance with government regulations.

Thankfully, the DSWD issued a Letter of Sustainability, which will now allow us to apply for a License to Operate as an auxiliary or resource agency. You might ask what an auxiliary or resource agency is. Simply put, RCMFI’s singular role is to raise funds to support the service projects undertaken by the Rotary Club of Manila, which projects are directed towards Rotary’s seven (7) areas of focus which are: 1- peacebuilding and conflict prevention; 2 – disease prevention and treatment; 3 – water, sanitation and hygiene; 4 – maternal and child health; 5 – basic education and literacy; 6 – community economic development and; 7 – protecting the environment.

However, we are not out of the woods yet. Great damage has been done by former consultants who have misrepresented RCMFI as a standard social welfare agency, which, of course, is not sustainable. Everyone here knows very well that the only reason as to why we have to comply with government regulations at all is for us to be able to provide tax exemptions to our donors. This is a very difficult conundrum, which I am still trying to untangle.

So far, we have collaborations with various partner organizations such as the PETA Asia Animal Welfare Outreach Program, the Hospicio de San Jose for the elderly, orphans and disabled, the Operations Smiles Philippines (OSP) for the cleft-impaired infants; the Dualtech Scholarship program on technical and vocational education; the Literacy Specialist for the public school teacher training program, and the Tophealth Medical Mission serving barangays in Metro Manila, chaired by RCMFI Assistant Treasurer Daniel Obrado.

We hope that RCM members will continue to support these service projects as they are truly philantrophic-worthy. Memoranda of Agreement were signed with these partner organizations. Their project proposals were duly evaluated by the Project Evaluation Committee chaired by Chair Bertel Ingmar Bertelsen. Chair Bertel has ensured fairness in the selection of approved service projects for funding through a just and consistent evaluation process adopted by the board of trustees.

We are still in the process of complying with the DSWD requirements to attain a License to Operate. Once granted, we can move on to apply for BIR registration through the Philippine Council for NGO Certification (PCNC) in order for RCMFI to sustain its status as a donee institution which will enable RCMFI to provide tax exemptions to our donors.

RCMFI President Jujut Enriquez is presently handling the application for a possible condonation of RCMFI’s contingent liability with the Social Security System. Despite the slow progress due mostly to the inefficiency of the secretariat, President Jujut is doing his best to resolve this long-standing problem the soonest time possible. The board approved this course of action. If the compromise will be had, we can be cleared of liabilities if we pay SSS the total amount of P204,240.00 instead of the assessment in the amount of P732,231.71.

Whereas, Board Legal Adviser Caloy Serapio is tasked with and has graciously accepted the responsibility of resolving the current human resource problems being experienced by RCMFI. I am certain updates will be presented soon by BLA Caloy.

I have mentioned during the induction that my kind of leadership is leading by example. But more than this, my leadership is about good governance and corporate housekeeping. I have mentioned several times that, indeed, we are having administrative issues due to the inefficiencies of our secretariat. However, I assure you that we are addressing these problems head-on and we are far from ignoring them. I believe it is not in the best interest of the foundation to let problems fester. I have instituted office protocols to instill discipline and build strong habits in our staff so that they can help RCMFI in achieving its goals. One of our goals is to preserve records, which will be very vital for the operations of the foundation, is digitalization. We are trying to do our best to upload all important files to the Google Drive. This existing drive has a limited memory; therefore, purchasing online workspaces may be considered in the future.

Besides complying with legal and regulatory standards and beyond instituting effective administrative procedures and protocols, together with my ever-supportive Board of Trustees and especially by our own financial genius Treasurer Michael Roxas, I can assure you that RCMFI is maintaining a strong financial position with a clear framework of prudent fiscal management. For this Rotary year, we have engaged the services of the accounting firm Racuya Business Solutions to assist Treasurer Mike. As a financial milestone, RCMFI invested the amount of P5,000,000.00 in a time deposit earning a gross yield of 4.375 per cent for thirty (30) days. Once this investment matures, it will definitely be rolled over. This commendable board decision will help ensure that restricted funds will be able to meet the requirements of PCNC so that we can sustain our accreditation for at least five (5) years hopefully, in the near future.

Which now brings me to the topic of the Legacy Endowment Fund. This is an effort to establish a capital fund with the goal of raising at least P10,000,000.00 by the year 2028. Initially, for the purpose of building up reserves, this has the ultimate goal of funding the transformative projects of RCM. However, there is a caveat. I am personally against hiring expensive outsourced consultants or executive directors because the cost of hiring them negatively impacts our hard-earned reserves. Government regulation compliance involves a minimal amount of documentation, and there are templates already provided. From what I have observed, past very expensive consultants and executive directors have done very little to streamline operations and have failed in conserving the hard-earned resources of the foundation.

As of today, my devoted and active Board of Trustees and I have successfully conducted five (5) very productive board meetings. Little is known that the management of the foundation should be and currently is in the hands of the board of trustees and should not be left to the devices of the mere Executive Director. This current board has chosen not to rely on the RCMFI secretariat to get things done. I also did not opt to hire outsourced consultants to comply with the DSWD, PCNC and BIR requirements. Corporate Secretary Anton Mauricio once mentioned that I am acting as the CEO of the Foundation. Why not? I deem it my duty to protect and conserve the resources of the foundation as if it were my very own.

To my board of trustees, you have my deep gratitude. I know that this is a thankless endeavour but you persevere because you love Rotary. Exciting things are yet to come with RCMFI, and we shall continue to keep you posted.

The elections for the new Board of Trustees will be held on December 11, 2025. Past Chair and PE Reggie Yu is the chairman of the NOMELEC. Meantime, please continue to support the golf fundraising event to be held in Sta. Elena Golf & Country Club on June 22, 2026 chaired by Karlo Kastro. Please be one of our corporate sponsors which are advertised on the website created by AT Daniel.

This is all for now, and I hope you have gotten to know our foundation a little better today. Thank you.