Fish for Life Project, Taguig-Laguna Lake

Our Rotary Club of Taguig Fort Bonifacio, RI District 3830, had a wonderful partnership with another club from Germany, the Rotary Club of Koln-Ville in Cologne. The latter's Club President, Stephan Zilkens, wrote to our Club President, Meann de Leon, asking how they can help some fishermen in Laguna Lake which they saw and read, were badly affected by a strong typhoon last year. Our club President replied to him, and the partnership was established.

 Club Secretary Patty Mangundatu-Michener was a great partner to President Meann in identifying the project location, beneficiaries and local (barangay and city) officials who can make the project implemented quick.

 It is a two-phase project. First the distribution of fish nets to affected fisherfolks, and Second, a knife fish processing, for the spouses of fishermen.

The good news is that knife fish is edible. It doesn't have to be thrown away, it can be processed into fish products like fish balls, fish patties, fish dumplings, fish nuggets, fish longanisa, fish hotdog and some other fish meals that one can think of which can be sold in the market.

Governor Robert Kuan's Visit

Last September 2, 2013, RI District 3830 First Class Governor Robert Kuan visited our club, along with two other clubs, RC Taguig West and RC Metropolitan Pateros. It was held at RC Makati Foundation building. Venue was free, we just paid for the food.

First Class President Meann de Leon of our club gave a presentation about the club and major activities and club meetings the past year and this rotary year. Then the line up of activities in the coming months.

Gov. Robert Kuan is a very successful businessman, sharp minded and yet humble. He got out of family business, the Ling Nam and related restaurants and put up his own, Chowking, made it very popular with many branches nationwide. He sold Chowking to his business buddy Tan CakTiong of Jollibee, then he went to head the St. Lukes Medical Foundation.

His experience in the private sector he is bringing to Rotary. It was in his incoming term that a multi-district, well all 10 Districts in the Philippines, held their common President Elect Training Seminar (PETS) in Cebu City last February -- a first time in the history of Philippine rotary. This coming March, the 10 Districts will hold its first ever multi-District Conference (DisCon) 2014. He promised lots of exciting and big name speakers, from Rotary International in the main headquarter in Illinois, most likely.

Gov. Robert pointed out that our club has among the biggest potential for membership expansion because of our location, within the Bonifacio Global City (BGC) where offices and businesses are expanding fast, and yet we remain small. He encouraged us to do more, to target not just to attain the minimum of 25 members, but to aim for 40, 80 or more members.

His advice is practical. Unlike in Makati that is saturated with so many rotary clubs already, Fort Bonifacio Global City has only about three clubs based there, our Rotary Club of Taguig Fort Bonifacio, RC Bonifacio Global City, and RC Makati Bonifacio. Thus, the potential for expansion is rather big because of the big number of businessmen and professionals in the business district.

President-Elect (PE) Daryl Cabato is very resourceful in bringing in new faces and potential members to the club. That night, he invited three new faces, all working in BGC, with an assurance of more potential members to bring in the coming weeks.

The group photo before dinner. Gov. Robert was accompanied by our cluster Assistant Gov. Chary Misa and District Secretary.

See also:
Moments 1: Rose Antonio, June 26, 2013
Popularizing Rotary's Projects and Events, August 01, 2013
Medical Mission at Philippine Cerebral Palsy Inc., September 05, 2013

Club Talk by Wan Saiful Wan Jan

Last Monday, our guest speaker was the CEO of the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) in Malaysia, Mr. Wan Saiful Wan Jan. Wan is my friend way back in 2008 when I met him Atlanta, USA during the Atlas Liberty Forum. I would meet hin almost yearly since then, in various regional meetings and conferences among free market leaders and advocates in our continent.

I posted in my political blog the full presentation of Wan with some notes and comments on it, here.

Our Club President, First Class President Meann de Leon gave a short report during her President's time, then gave the floor to me to introduce the guest Speaker. My introduction was short, focusing on Wan leaving his 17 years career in London and go back to Kuala Lumpur along with his wife and 3 kids, all born in London, to start a free market think tank there.

Several clubmates were not able to come last Monday, but some friends of mine in the free market group here in Manila came. And they asked lots of questions to Wan.

President Meann giving the Certificate of Recognition to Wan.

The usual group photo after the talk.

Another group photo, for the boys :-)

Thanks Wan for imparting lots of useful information and observations about Malaysian economy and government, and their lessons for us here in the Philippines.

Medical Mission at Philippine Cerebral Palsy Inc.

Last August 29, our club, the Rotary Club of Taguig Fort Bonifacio, partnered with two other clubs in our District 3830, for a medical and dental mission to patients of the Philippine Cerebral Palsy, Inc. (PCPI) in Makati City.

A corridor of the Center, with some arriving patients.

One of the newly arriving patients...

At the waiting area, patients were either waiting for their turn to see Rehabilitation physicians and aides, dentists, or done seeing them, waiting for the giving of take home freebies.

New clubmate, Era Eguia, chose this among her favorite photos in her profile. The boy should be a case of more severe case of palsy...

Btway, photo credits, by IPP Rose Antonio and Era. Those with Rotary logo are from Era's camera, the rest are from IPP Rose's camera.

A dental clean up, done by members of the Kalookan chapter of the Philippine Dental Society.

Fellowship, After Four Club Talks

After four consecutive Monday nights of club talks on different topics by different speakers, our club President, First Class President Meann de Leon called for a fellowship. Instead of last Monday night, she scheduled it last Thursday night at Music 21 in Makati. The talks last month were:

Classification Talk by Daryl Cabato, July 02, 2013

Classification Talk by Dr. Jed Inciong, July 12, 2013
My Classification Talk, on Mining Taxation, July 19, 2013 
John Walker on Strengthening Corporate Security, July 24, 2013

I came late, around 8:30pm, and the guys were already having great fun. 
Below, from left: Arnan, brother of Past President Norlan de Leon, sister of President Meann, Meann, IPP Rose Antonio, Mike Michener, Patty Mangundatu, Past President Niel Antonio, Norlan... 

Below, from left: Patty, PP Niel, PP Norlan, PP Jed Inciong, Henry Villa, Marco Pagaduan, Jun Mendoza.

Later we moved to a bigger room as PE Daryl Cabato and wife also joined us. This big room can accommodate probably 25 people. There are three tv screens to read and sing the lyrics.

President-Elect (PE) Daryl Cabato (middle, with jacket) and wife.
Fellowships are encouraged in Rotary -- no serious meetings, no speakers, just loosen up, sing and dance, things we cannot do during regular meetings.

I also belted out a few songs, President Meann dancing :-)

Patty, holding the microphone, is a great singer. She used to sing at some hotel bars. Her voice is really great and terrific. I kidded that we saved money getting a professional singer to give us really good songs.

Thank you for that wonderful night, President Meann and clubmates. 
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See also:
Club Relief Operations After the Manila Flooding, August 13, 2012 
Peace President Rose Antonio, May 23, 2013 
Charter President Bobby Dimayuga, May 26, 2013

Club Handover, June 24, 2013, June 25, 2013 

Popularizing Rotary’s Projects and Events

Among the most high profile legacies of Immediate Past President (IPP) Rose Antonio to the club is having a facebook group with the biggest number of likes among the 88 clubs in RI District 3830.  Yes, while other clubs much bigger than ours have facebook likes of below 500, even below 100, ours has 1,818 likes as of this writing. This means that same number of people, Rotarians or non-Rotarians, can see updates about our club if they regularly check their facebook accounts.

One positive result of this is that a number of professionals and businessmen in Taguig or nearby cities have expressed interest in joining the club. They see the regular updates, photos especially, of where the Club went to, the fellowships and community projects, club talk with resource speakers, participation in District activities, and so on.

IPP Rose has exercised prudence in selecting who among those who wrote to her saying they want to join the club, deserve a response. Because there are obvious applicants who only want to spam the club members with the various business projects that they are selling.

So far, four new Club members have passed through the insightful scrutiny of IPP Rose’s eyes. They have been invited to the club meetings, we have interacted with them, shared with them our professional background and activities, and so far so good. So the Club has decided to officially let them in. The nearly-inducted members were Era Eguia, a finance staff of a European bank, Mike Michener, a “life coach” and counselor; Daryl CAbato, an agribusiness trader, and Henry Villa, a customs broker.

The entry of these four new clubmates plus about three other new members has expanded the classification membership of our club. Whereas before, many members are in the construction-related businesses, now we have members doing professional and entrepreneurial work in banking, life counseling, life insurance, agribusiness trading, freight forwarding, glass fabrication, human resources, medical practice, think tank, and so on. This expanding mixture of club membership in different fields will be reflected further in future club community and youth projects.

Rotary has lots and lots of community projects spanning various sectors – in healthcare, housing, education and youth training, water and sanitation, livelihood and community development, environmental conservation, and so on. RI District 3830 is one of those in the forefront in various big humanitarian projects among the 10 RI Districts in the Philippines, and even among other districts in neighboring Asian countries.

The rainy season has started in the country and we already saw lots of flooding in Metro Manila and surrounding provinces, down to Mindanao. Helping those who are affected by heavy flooding will become a repeated activity of Rotarians and other civic organizations in the country, usually up to November.

We cannot give what we do not have. Since such community projects will require funding, in cash or in kind, we need to raise funds for the club from our friends, aside from pulling out resources from our own pockets from time to time.

These and many other  activities need to be publicized and popularized to other people, especially the non-Rotarians. We are non-politicians or government officials who bask in media limelight for political and even personal gratification. We just do these things out of pure and sincere help to our less privileged brothers and sisters, and still have fun via fellowships with like-minded professionals and businessmen.

This Rotary Year 2013-2014, I have been assigned by First Class President Meann de Leon, to be the Club Public Relations (PR) Director. My role is to help popularize and announce to the District and the public at large, our various Club and District activities, especially related to community assistance and development in poorer or calamity-affected areas.

With a dynamic club leadership backed up by committed and fun-seeking members and other Past Presidents, plus a dynamic support by the District leadership headed by First Class Governor Robert Kuan, there is little doubt that our Club can expand further both in membership and in various community projects this Rotary Year.

Cheers clubmates and friends. And more power to First Class President Meann and Governor Robert.

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See also:
Peace President Rose Antonio, May 23, 2013 
Charter President Bobby Dimayuga, May 26, 2013

Club Handover, June 24, 2013, June 25, 2013 

Moments 1: Rose Antonio, June 26, 2013

Classification Talk by Daryl Cabato, July 02, 2013

Classification Talk by Dr. Jed Inciong, July 12, 2013

My Classification Talk, on Mining Taxation

Last Monday was my turn to give a classification talk. My classification is think tank management, and I do research on various topics -- health, mining, energy, climate, free trade, macro econ, transport econ, political ideology, etc. So I can talk on any of those topics with good data. I chose the topic on mining taxation because it is among the hot issues in the country today. The event was held at Metro Club, Rockwell, Makati.

My presentation, 26 slides, is posted in my political blog, see here, Mining 26: Presentation at Rotary Club of Taguig Fort Bonifacio

I was introduced by new clubmate who was inducted only last Monday, Patty Mangudatu, 3rd from left, in front of a red laptop. Thanks for the kind intro, Patty. My clubmates here listening to my talk.

First Class President Meann de Leon giving me my Certificate of Appreciation, plus a box of cake, which I gave to my daughters and wife.

Before my talk, our club inducted another new member, Reggie Necio, right. The "charging officer" was Past President Romel Villegas.

Reggie being inducted by our Club President, Meann de Leon.

Past President Nrolan de Leon, also the husband of Pres. Meann, putting the rotary pin on new clubmate Reggie's polo.

 
The group photo. We were 15 here, including my guest and ninong to my daughter, VJ Dizon, extreme right, standing. Six members were absent last week.

Thanks once again, to Immediate Past President (IPP) Rose Antonio, 2nd from right sitting, for an exemplary work work done for the club last rotary year, which attracted some people to come and join our club.

This coming Monday, the club will host a talk by John F. Walker, a friend of our new clubmate Mike Michener, and he will talk about "The Misconceptions and Realities of Corporate Security". Same venue at Metro Club.
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See also:
Charter President Bobby Dimayuga, May 26, 2013

Club Handover, June 24, 2013, June 25, 2013 

Classification Talk by Daryl Cabato, July 02, 2013

Classification Talk by Dr. Jed Inciong, July 12, 2013

Classification Talk by Dr. Jed Inciong

One beauty of being in a rotary club is exposure to the diversity of professional and business affiliation, aka "classification" of members. In our club for instance, we have members who are in the fields of medicine, HR management, banking, real estate, freight forwarding, customs brokerage, agribusiness trading, shipping, counselling/life coaching, glass fabrication, think tank, and so on.

With such diversity in the professional background of members, it is interesting to listen to each them, like what they exactly do, various products and services they provide, and so on. Last week, a classification talk on agribusiness (poultry) trading was given by new clubmate, Daryl Cabato. This week, last Monday, a talk on "Looking as you feel: cosmetic surgery and non-surgical aesthetics." The club meeting was held at Tapeo Restaurant, The Fort Strip, at Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.

Our Club President, First Class President Meann de Leon, assigned me to introduce Jed. It's a task that I liked, introducing a good friend -- with me in the board of our think tank, Minimal Government Thinkers Inc., godfather to my second daughter Bien Mary, and a clubmate and friend since I joined the club in 2004. His wife, Dr. Liz Inciong, is also the pediatrician of our two daughters.

Jed is a bright man. He graduated from the Philippine Science High School (PSHS or "Pisay"), the school of geeks and geniuses. It is very difficult to enter that school as there are thousands of bright applicants every year from all over the country, and the school get only a few. And it is equally difficult to finish four years of heavy science and math.

Jed went to UP Diliman for his BS Biology pre-medicine course, then to UERM Medical Center, interned at UP-Philippine General Hospital (PGH), specialized OB-Gyne at UERM again, got units in MS Asian Health Practices, and further pursued Cosmetics Surgery and been a practicing cosmetics surgeon for seven years now.

Aside from the above background, I also introduced Jed as a person who has disabled many young Filipinos who want to be in politics someday, to be eligible to run for President of the country. Know why? Because in the current Philippine Constitution, only "natural born" Filipinos can run for President. Those who are "caesarian born" are in effect, disqualified to run for President, and Jed has performed hundreds of caesarian operation to so many mothers since he became an OB-Gyne specialist in 1991. My clubmates and even Jed like this joke, as always.

Jed's topic has attracted many visitors other than our clubmates. A friend in the free market movement for instance, Harry Santos, plus his girlfriend Carla, came too. Harry wrote an interesting blog post after listening to Jed that night, Rotary Club of Taguig Fort Bonifacio Talk.

Daryl also brought his business partners from 1st Northern International Placement, Inc. and they too, listened to Jed's talk. Below, Daryl behind me, and the three guests -- Celia, Anchie and Peter.

Before Jed's talk, President Meann also inducted two new members, below. Patty Mangodatu in white dress, and Ana Viola Laqui in blue-green dress. Congratulations, Patty and Ana, and welcome to the club.

During fellowship after Jed's talk and open forum, a classmate of Pres. Meann, First Class President Stefanie Campaner came and gave a short talk about her club's community project, helping people with suicidal tendencies, and their musical concert fund-raising activity. A number of our clubmates bought tickets from her.

Nice talk by Jed, nice entry to the club of two new members, nice meeting guests who hopefully, may consider joining our club someday too.

See also:
Peace President Rose Antonio, May 23, 2013 
Charter President Bobby Dimayuga, May 26, 2013

Club Handover, June 24, 2013, June 25, 2013 

Classification Talk by Daryl Cabato, July 02, 2013