Inaugural Speech
District 3830 Handover
June 5, 2008, Hotel Intercon, Makati City

Ten years ago, I stood at the doorstep of a great challenge. I became president of the Rotary Club of Parañaque South. Tonight, I stand at the threshold of a yet bigger challenge: to serve as your District Governor.  With you as my witnesses, I accept this challenge whole-heartedly and most willingly. I pledge to honor the position of Governor by serving with all my heart, with all my mind, and with all my soul.  You have given me the mandate to serve. Serve I will, even under the most difficult and challenging circumstances – because your mandate is my destiny. And with the grace of God, I shall fulfill this destiny.

As I accept this mandate tonight, I want to express my sincere and overwhelming gratitude to those who have journeyed with me in my Rotary odyssey.

I share the honor – and pleasure – of this governorship with my club- the Rotary Club of Parañaque South- with my fellow Rotarians and friends who have always stood by me, especially during my most trying moments as a candidate, a governor-nominee, and governor-elect. To them I owe this opportunity and to them I say, “Thank you” most profoundly. As gratitude is the heart’s memory, my heart will always remember.

In a very special way, I want to thank Governor Ato Magadia and all our past district governors. They have placed upon my all-too-willing shoulders an awesome responsibility: to uphold and carry on District 3830’s tradition of excellence, which inspires every new governor to reach greater heights of achievement. This tradition is our most cherished legacy from them. I will call on them continually to share with me their wellsprings of wisdom and counsel.

I want to express my deep gratitude two of my cherished friends, Past President Marty Alvarado, and the Charter President of my home club, our Past District Governor and Past RI Director Joc Joc Bolante.  Fourteen years ago, they extended to me a life-altering invitation to join Rotary. Their invitation opened my eyes to the world of selfless service, which has been my greatest source of unending joy and inner fulfillment. Joining Rotary has been the best thing that ever happened to me.

I want to say “Thank you” most especially to my family, whose love, understanding and unconditional support have given life and true meaning to my daily endeavors, both in my personal and Rotary life. They have always shared my joys, my hopes, my fears, and even my pains.

I want to thank you all for being here tonight to be my living witnesses and to lend me your invaluable support. I also want to make special mention of my District Governors’ Elect classmates, my co-governors for 2008-09 who are here tonight to share this wonderful evening. (May I invite my fellow District Governors’ Elect and their spouses to please stand and be recognized?  My friends, these are the governors who will be serving you for RY 2008-2009.  A big hand of applause please.  Thank you my DGE classmates.)

Please allow me to give a special recognition to my classmates, the Presidents of our Dream Team in Rotary Year 1998-1999.  Ten years ago, we all said Yes! When RI President Jim Lacy called on us to Follow Your Rotary Dream.  This year, we will all join hands to Make Dreams Real. (May I request my Dream Team classmates --- and  their spouses to please stand up to be recognized?)

I also wish to acknowledge with gratitude the inspiring presence of several past district governors and district governors-nominee especially from our district, District 3830, and other districts as well.  (Again may I request all the PDGs and DGNs from all districts and their spouses to kindly stand to be recognized.   Thank you for continuously contributing your time, talents and treasures for the good of Rotary.   And of course, we will gladly welcome your continuing commitment to Rotary service during our term.)

There is a proverb that says, “If the beginning is good, the end must be perfect.”  We began our journey together by listening with our hearts at the Pre-Pets and at the Presidents Elect Training Seminar. We opened our hearts and minds. We listened and learned from our trainers and District Officers.  We devoted many hours of diligent study. We made earnest preparations. Those were certainly long hours well spent.  Yes indeed, we can say our beginning has been good.  Now let’s take that first step toward a perfect ending.  Let us start to Make Dreams Real in our wonderful world of Rotary service.

Ladies and gentlemen, the right to food, water, housing, clothing and education is our birthright.  But millions of children around the world have virtually defaulted in claiming this birthright – as  it has become virtually unattainable in the face of widespread poverty and apathy.   To heal this injustice, Rotary International is asking every club, every district, and every Rotarian to save our children through service projects in its area of emphases: Water, Health and Hunger, and Literacy.  Friends, we can see from our polluted cities and dead rivers the cruel scourge that mankind has reaped from the wanton destruction and abuse of our environment.  Every day, we witness from behind our tinted car windows, infants who are being used as props for begging.  Children die needlessly before they reach the age of five because their basic needs are not met.

Yet, how can we provide food and water when our environment and natural resources are polluted and endangered?  In addition to RI’s emphases, the governors of District 3830 as well as the other districts of Philippine Rotary will also focus their efforts in saving the environment.   For this reason, all incoming district governors have agreed to work together in preserving our natural resources and the beauty that comes with it- for us, for our children and for the coming generations.  Later on tonight, my fellow governors will join me in signing a memorandum of agreement to affirm our commitment and common cause.

I have said much already.  It’s time that the children’s voices are heard.

Child No. 1:  Our Father in heaven, I don’t know where you are, but I’m told you’re  everywhere, loving us and watching over us, every second of our lives. But we’re afraid because 30,000 of children like us die every day even before they reach our age.

Child No. 2: Children die because of pneumonia, measles and malaria – for the lack of basic medicines, vaccines, and mosquito nets.

Child No. 3:
Children die of diarrhea and related diseases because their parents have no money to buy re-hydration salts, which can be bought cheap in any drug store.

Child No. 4:
Children die by the thousands every day, because they don’t have clean water for bathing and drinking.

Child No. 5: Children die because of poor sanitation and malnutrition.

Child No. 1: 
Children die because their families are very poor and stay poor because they have not gone to school.

Child No. 2:
Children die because they don’t get what they need in the areas of water, health and hunger and literacy.
Child No. 3:
Dear Lord, have pity on us and the other children of the world. Give us the chance to live like other children who grow up to enjoy life.

Child No. 4:
Send us your angels to save us from harm. Please touch the hearts of Rotarians so that they will come to our help through the programs that they do in our communities.

Child No. 5:
Touch their hearts O Lord, so that they will help us make our dreams real.

Fellow Rotarians, let us listen to the voices of our children and let us make their dreams real. Share with me the passion to rise above the challenge of our year’s theme: To reduce the terrible rate of child mortality and to preserve the environment. To accomplish this ---

Let us Make Dreams Real by giving children hope and a chance to live long and happy lives.

Let us Make Dreams Real by giving children the gift of good health by improving their environments and their access to care.

Let us Make Dreams Real by making sure that more children have a chance to go to school, because education can break the chains of poverty that enslave their families. 

I know that the challenges we face are not easy but I welcome them.  We have planned thoroughly and broken down the tasks into smaller ones. We have clearly spelled out our District Goals.  We have prepared well for our year of service in our three Pre-Presidents-elect Training Seminars, which we fondly called our “Hit the Ground Running” series We convened our District Assembly where we focused on “Our Children – Our Future”. We also traveled to Davao for our District Team Training Seminar.  

Our Clubs have chosen the best amongst us to be the “Real Good Presidents”.  I have chosen the best among our fellow Rotarians to become “Real Good District Officers”.  I am very confident that all of you are well-prepared and ready to assume your leadership roles. Now it is the time to perform our mission:  to translate our plans into concrete actions --- and to make a real difference in the lives of our brethren in all the communities where the Rotary wheel of service will turn vigorously.  

At this point I’d like to acknowledge all the District Officers who will be serving with me this year.  Please stand to be recognized.  Thank you.

Now, saving the best for last,  I present my Real Good Presidents, my co-servant leaders for RY 2008-2009.  Fellow Rotarians and guests, let us give a big hand to our hard-working leaders and visionaries.  Thank you.)

We are blessed with the opportunity to come together in Rotary and serve with hope and compassion.  I am sure you all joined me today so we can all commit ourselves to being dream-makers. Like all of you, I will not rest easy with simply dreaming. Together we will Make Dreams Real. In fulfilling the dreams of even just one child, we will have expressed gratitude for our God-given talents.  Indeed, Service Above Self makes all of us Rotarians witnesses and trustees of God’s goodness and abundant mercy.

Before I close, let me share with you some nuggets of wisdom. From US President Theodore Roosevelt: “No man is worth his salt who is not ready at all times to risk his body… to risk his well-being… to risk his life… in a great cause.”

In accepting an honor from the Brazilian Academy of Letters, author Paulo Coelho reminded his audience:

“The glory of the world is transitory, and we should not measure our lives by it, but by the choice we make to believe in our utopias and to fight for our dreams. We are all heroes of our own lives, and it is often the anonymous heroes that leave the deepest mark.”

My dear fellow Rotarians, let us all leave our mark as workers in the great garden of Rotary service. 

I am delighted to have a whole year to work with hundreds of amazing Rotarians in our year of service. I pledge to give the best of myself, and while working with you, to meet the expectations of the communities that we are serving.  We will do our level best to create a better world for the children of the New Generation.  

I am ready. I am willing.  And I am able to serve with you as your co-worker and leader. I will do what it takes to deserve the honor of being your governor and your partner in service. I am ready in body and spirit. I will walk hand-in-hand with you wherever it will take us along the path we have chosen – the path on which we will make our dreams real.

Only one thing makes a dream impossible: the fear of failure and suffering. Such fear is worse than suffering itself. And no heart ever suffered when it went in search of its dreams. Again, Paulo Coelho tells us:

“Open your heart and listen to what it is telling you. Follow your dreams because only a person who is not ashamed can manifest the glory of God.  The best way to serve God is by going in search of your own dreams. Only the happy can spread happiness.”

I ask you to join me in being cheerful and happy servants in the garden of Rotary service. Let us serve joyfully and give of ourselves until it feels good, sooooo-good, real good.

Rotary’s ideal is a great cause – perhaps the greatest cause any man can pursue for the good of humanity. For there is no greater cause than to serve others above one’s self.

In our year, Rotary inspires us to save Planet Earth by loving and caring for our environment, and to save newly-born children so they, too, may enjoy the great gift of Life. 

This is the cause that unites us in building a better future. Let us show the world how much we can do when we work together.  Service to humanity is our clarion call. 

Now is the time to answer that call.  Now is the time to act.

Kung hindi tayo kikilos, sino ang kikilos? Kung hindi ngayon, kailan pa? 

My dear friends in Rotary,  now is our time to MAKE DREAMS REAL.