Fellowships with Japanese Rotarians

Batas Mauricio

WITH full apologies to Ms. Lilian Cruz, a past president of a Rotary club in Manila and is the outgoing editor-in-chief of the “Governor’s Monthly Newsletter” of Rotary International District 3810, I am yielding this column today and tomorrow to an article she requested my wife, incoming All Star President Angelina Mauricio of the Rotary Club of Intramuros, to write.

The complete article written by my wife will be featured in the June 2016 issue of the “Governor’s Monthly Newsletter”, which is actually the last issue for Rotary Year 2015-2016, under District 3810 outgoing Governor, Roberto “Obet” Panganiban, the former Bulacan governor and Cabinet secretary of former President Arroyo.

Here is the first part of my wife’s article: “As the incoming All Star President of the Rotary Club of Intramuros-Manila, District 3810 of Rotary International, for Rotary Year 2016-2017, the long-lingering vision in my mind that Rotary is indeed a world class organization steeped in giving ‘service above self’ recently received a tremendous boost.

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“This happened when I joined our World Class President Cosette Chua and several other members of our club in travelling to Japan, the famous land of the rising sun, and in participating in the 40th Charter Anniversary of the Rotary Club of Kishiwada East, Japan, upon the invitation of its officers led by President Naoki Yonemoto and Rotarian Takao Shomen.

“During this visit between June 03, 2016 to June 10, 2016, all of us from the Rotary Club of Intramuros were regaled with stories, buttressed by facts, figures, and photos, showing how brother and sister Rotarians from Kishiwada East, in the Osaka Prefecture, attended to the sick and the needy, and to people who had no one else to turn to in their hour of great need—the men and women of Rotary who, for Rotary Year 2015-2016, decided to ‘be a gift to the world’.

“At the end of our journey, we left Kishiwada East and our fellow Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Kishiwada East filled with mixed emotions—of wanting to stay on for a few more days, to learn more on how Japanese Rotarians fulfill their pledge to lead the way in service as they reach within to embrace humanity so that they truly be a gift to the world, proving to all and sundry that one can rely on ‘Rotary Serving Humanity’.

“As the popular American ballad intones, however, some good things never last, and this is true even with a good thing like linking up with fellow Rotarians from across the seas, from a country that remains strong especially in its commitment to help the poor and the needy, even if it has been recently devastated by deadly earthquakes and tidal waves.

“To those wanting to know, the long-standing friendship between the Rotary Club of Intramuros and the Rotary Club of Kishiwada East started from a common desire from their early leaders to concretize Rotary’s goal of international cooperation.

“Over endless rounds of golf and fellowship sautéed on good food and overflowing drinks, spiced with good-natured ribbing and exchange of experiences on Rotary activities, and finally coated with firm pledges to enter into a long-lasting partnership dotted with visits during important Club activities, the two Clubs forged a sister-club agreement that exists up to the present time…” More of this next issue!

Email: batasmauricio@yahoo.com.