Rotary in Davao at 88

In 1938, a journey from Manila carried the promise of Rotary to Davao. Nearly nine decades later, I traveled south to join the Rotary Club of Davao in celebrating the life that promise has taken on.

Standing before the portraits of the Rotary Club of Davao's past presidents and district governors, I am reminded that an 88-year story is built one act of service at a time. Each leader has helped shape a legacy rooted in friendship, commitment, and care for the community. Their example continues to inspire Rotarians today to serve with purpose and create lasting impact.

I came at the invitation of President Dexter So for the club's 88th charter anniversary at The Royal Mandaya Hotel. With me were Past District Governor Jackie Rodriguez, Rotarians Teddy Garcia and Bertel Bertelsen. Jackie, Teddy and Inggy are either based in or residents of Davao. I was the one arriving from Manila, though the welcome awaiting me made the distance feel small.

At the airport, I was met by two longtime friends and JCI Senate colleagues, Verne de la Cruz, Past President of the Rotary Club of North Davao, and Teddy, my fellow member of the Rotary Club of Manila. Their warm greeting was the first note of a visit shaped by old friendships and shared service.

The anniversary gathered more than a club around a milestone. The Rotary Club of Davao is the first Rotary club in Mindanao and the fourth oldest in the Philippines. It is also one of the oldest daughter clubs of the Rotary Club of Manila. The bond between our clubs reaches back to 1938, when Manila extended Rotary to Davao.

That history gave the evening a quiet depth. We were not only celebrating a club's past; we were meeting again across the years, joined by the same fellowship that first connected us.

Among those associated with the founding of the club was its charter president Fitz Reed, a Michigan native who was then managing director of Standard Oil in the Philippines and later served as a major in the U.S. Army. His place in the story offers a glimpse of Rotary's early presence in Davao and of the people who helped plant its roots in Mindanao.

One of the evening's most meaningful moments came when our own PDG Jackie Rodriguez spoke about the Rotary Club of Davao's history through the lens of his family. For Jackie, the club's past is closely entwined with the story of Davao itself and with the lives of two pioneering families.

His father-in-law, Antonio "Tony" Habana Jr., the first Filipino president of the Club, was one of Davao's foremost early twentieth-century Catholic lawyers and civic leaders. A prominent prewar lawyer and councilor, Habana belonged to a generation that helped shape the city's civic and legal life. Jackie married his daughter, Sonja Ricarda Habana, herself a civic leader and former Davao City councilor.

The Rodriguez family's own history is woven into that same fabric. Jackie's grandfather, Judge Joaquin Rodriguez y Serra, was among Davao's earliest legal practitioners and founded the region's first newspaper, "El Eco de Davao." As Jackie shared these connections, the club's history seemed to open into a larger story of family, public service and community-building. The Rotary Club of Davao's past was not distant or abstract. It lived in the memories and lineage of someone present in the room.

The evening's ceremonies, led by President Dexter, opened with the national anthem and Rotary hymn, followed by a reading of The Four Way Test and the Object of Rotary. Their familiar words seemed especially apt in a room gathered to honor a legacy: they turned our attention from the years behind us to the principles by which we choose to live and serve now.

The Rotary Club Of Davao is a story of people who chose to come together, and of a fellowship that grew into generations of service. The tributes to past presidents, sister clubs and stakeholders gave that story its human measure. Every club is shaped by those who lead it, those who stand beside it and those who quietly help its work endure.

Then the evening turned toward the future. New members were presented, charged and inducted into Rotary. Their welcome was a fitting answer to the history we had just honored. A club's legacy is not kept behind glass. It is entrusted to those who join, serve and carry it forward.

The program also featured an inspirational message from Past President Jose Soberano III of the Rotary Club of Cebu. Soberano is the founder and chief executive officer of Cebu Landmasters, Inc., one of the biggest developers in the Visayas and Mindanao. The formal ceremonies concluded with the presentation of a token, a ceremonial toast and the traditional slicing of the anniversary cake. Afterward came fellowship, the unhurried conversations and reunions that give a Rotary gathering its warmth.

Eighty-eight years is a long span of time, but the evening made it feel less like a distance than a thread, one drawn from the club's beginnings through each generation of Rotarians to the members gathered at the Royal Mandaya Hotel, Davao City. Congratulations to President Dexter So and the Rotary Club of Davao. May that thread remain strong, and may the club's enduring spirit continue to serve Davao and Mindanao for many years to come.