November 22, 2013

    Last Saturday, we had a very busy day of Rotary district activities. Very early at 8am in the morning, we went to Valle Verde Country Club for the 3rd District breakfast meeting. DG Louie Ticman welcomed all of us and one by one all the district chairmen made their respective reports, with particular highlight on the ongoing fundraising efforts for the victims of Super typhoon Yolanda. All the relief goods were delivered and an initial Ph 500,000 of money collected were remitted to the District Calamity Fund account of RI District 3860 headed by DG Louie’s classmate DG Edgar Chiongbian. It’s still not too late to give our contributions in cash or in kind to the typhoon victims. Tonight during the Intercity meeting, all the Zone 4 FC Presidents will contribute an initial amount and will appeal to the members present to give whatever amount they can share. We will remit the total amount collected to the District Calamity Fund account of RID 3800. The district is also continuously soliciting donations in kind at the warehouse beside POEA along EDSA. Last night together with some FC Presidents, IPPs, Rotarians and spouses from Zone 4 and Zone 5 we were at Banchetto in Pioneer. We manned the booth provided for free to RID 3800 and went around the area from table to table to solicit donations in cash or in kind. We turn-over the cash donations box and the boxes of noodles, bottled water, canned goods that were donated onsite to the district coordinators assigned. We were there until 12MN to do our share to help the victims of Yolanda. As we all know, Yolanda wreaked havoc and destruction to eastern, central and western Visayas provinces, particularly Tacloban City.Let us help the victims of this calamity and be thankful that Metro Manila was spared and we are safe. In sympathy to the victims, let us do our share by donating whatever we can for the benefit of our brothers in the Visayas, especially the children.

    Later in the afternoon of the same Saturday, we went to Kalayaan Hall of Club Filipino for the 2nd District Mass Induction. Although we didn’t have a new member to be inducted, I went there to show support to our classmates who accompanied their inductees as well as show support to the host club, our sister club RC San Juan. My classmate FCP Therese Montecer and I are now planning for our first joint project and I will provide details after our meeting on this. A total of about 75 new members were inducted by DG Louie to the Rotary world after a masterful charging by PDG and PRM Editor-in Chief Melito Salazar, complete with powerpoint slides.

    Last Monday, DGSR Dindo Santos again hosted a meeting for the prospective members of the proposed Rotary eClub of Marikina. Although some prospective members from last week’s meeting did not show up, there were new ones who arrived notably another batch of second generation Rotarians. One of the first to arrive was my first cousin, Rendy de la Paz, son of PP Flor de la Paz. Two brothers and a sister from PD Jessie Cruz’ family also arrived, but only two will join the new eclub. DGSR Dindo Santos is still hopeful that PD Rey Montoya’s sons will also attend the meetings of the new eclub. I was surprised to learn that PP Bobby Rosadia is attending the meeting not as a friend and classmate of PP Dindo, but as another prospective charter member of the new eclub. He will surely bring his vast experience to help mould our Marikina version of what a Rotary eClub could and should be in the future.

    Again last Wednesday, DGSR Tony Fidelino presided over the meeting of the proposed Rotary Club of Marikina Valley. It was another successful meeting with almost twenty five prospective members attending to meet the charter strength required for provisional membership. Again I was surprised to see Rotarian Roman Villame in the meeting. Notable attendees during the meeting include IWCPI PDC Julie Malaya with her partner IPP Benjie Malaya. Other Rotarians in the meeting include VP Bernard Cansana, AG Ronie Masangkay, PP George Ty, and Rtn Dan Sibal. I understand that all new clubs to be chartered must have at least 25% females as members and this new club more than meet this requirement. Congratulations DGSR Tony Fidelino for organizing this exciting new Rotary club and hope that this will be the 3rd new club to be chartered in the entire Philippines and 1st in our district for this Rotary year, so the new club officers and charter members can attend the DISCON 2013 at Manila Hotel in March 2013.

    It was a very tense moment when, PP Joe Judan rolled the last ball during the 5th game of the District Ten Pin Bowling Tournament held at Coronado Lanes, Star Mall, EDSA. We needed a strike to at least tie for 2nd place in Group 3, or so we thought. Per my computation we needed a total pinfalls for the best 4 players score of 718, which I relayed to him before the start of the tenth frame. So he told us before he rolled the ball that he needs to have a strike on the final extra ball or a total of ten extra pinfalls. When he hit a strike we all shout for joy that we have at least a tie for second place with RC Marikina Hilltop, who rallied during the last game. Then I remembered that I added one pinfall for a definite win and that we need 717 for a tie. We waited for the scores to be tallied officially and confirmed later that we won 2nd place, after all. The Champion team in Group 3 is way ahead with 100 pinfalls difference. Congratulations to RC Greenhills/RC Downtown San Juan joint team for winning the DDG Cup. Congratulations and thank you to all the players who played for our Team RC Marikina, including Team Captain Rey Montoya, PP Onnie Aguinaldo, PP Joe Judan, PP Dante Verano, PP George Ty,Dir Manny Pecho, PE Dodjie Cabalquinto, Spouse Lyn Montoya, future Rotarian Andrei Aguinaldo and I.

    There are two district events next week. On Tuesday, we will have the TRF Annual Giving Dinner to be hosted by RC Marikina Hilltop will be on Nov. 25, 2013 at 6:00PM at the Wack Wack Golf & Country Club, Pavilion A. Paul Harris Fellows will be honoured during this event. Dinner fee isPh 1,000.Then the following day, we will rise very early for the 3rd Leg of the District Golf Tournament for a Cause.This will be hosted by the Zone 4 Clubs with RC Marikina as the Lead Club. Thank you to PP Noel Flores, the District Tournament Chairman for this event for all his efforts to make this a successful project meeting the standards of the district. Thank you for all the hole sponsors and the golfers in our club for your full support to this project. The District Christmas party with the theme “Soul Train” will be on Dec. 11, 2013 at 6PM at Camp Aguinaldo Exec, Clubhouse. Registration fee is Ph 500. A table for twelve has been reserved for us.

    This is the twentieth entry in my journal. We are now almost halfway through our journey. I know I have made some mistakes and missed some opportunities along the way. But as always, we only learn from them and hope to do better in the future. Let us look forward to a better tomorrow not only for ourselves for those of our unfortunate brothers and sisters who were victims of Yolanda. Let us share whatever we can and it will come back to us ten times more. As I recall the comment from adonor at Banchetto from Cucina Manila, they allocated 10% of their sales and donated the amount to Rotary Calamity Fund for the Yolanda typhoon victims, and in return, their sales went up way more than what they gave. May God bless all of us. Let usshare Rotary to our friends and encourage them to be members of this great service organization. During this Rotary Foundation month, let us contribute to the TRF and support its campaign to do good in the world. Let us engage Rotary and change lives. Thank you.