The year marked the 100th anniversary of the founding of Rotary International and the Club’s 40th. For RC Makati, it was special in that the district governor was from its ranks—J. Antonio “Tony” Quila.
To commemorate the occasion, the Club published a coffee table book titled “Our Children, Our Future.” Conceptualized by Pres. Federico “Freddie” Borromeo and PRID Paing Hechanova, with JJ Calero as project chair, it was edited by Palanca Hall of Famer Krip Yuson.
Two projects placed the Club on a more solid footing than before in the areas of education and health.
In acknowledgment of its track record in TB treatment for communities, it was designated lead club in a country-wide project dubbed “Stop TB 2005.” Falling under the umbrella of the Rotary Declaration Against TB that bound the district governors of the Philippines’ ten Rotary districts, “Stop TB Now” charged all Rotary Clubs in the country to undertake programs and activities for the prevention and/or treatment of the disease in their service areas.
The Club renewed its relations with the U.S. Embassy with a partnership agreement with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) that called for the delivery of 60 container loads of books to schools in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. Undertaken by the Books Across the Seas (BATS) Project, the book delivery ran for three years and cost $400,000. It will be recalled that BATS was bequeathed to the Club by the USIS and AmCham in 1988. The assignment not only offered the project a financial boost but gave the Club occasion to prove its operational expertise. It is worthy of note that in this ARMM assignment, it was USAID that sought RC Makati assistance.
Education in public schools received a push with the training of a fresh batch of 142 teachers in teaching English, Math and Science at the Ateneo under the Teacher Training Program. The Club also manifested the much vaunted Filipino hospitality by hosting a visiting Rotary Exchange team from Kota Kinabalu and boosted its The Rotary Foundation numbers by enlisting 26 new Paul Harris Fellows.
In late November, moved by the plight of families affected by massive flooding in Quezon province, the Club joined hands with the Ateneo Grade School to personally deliver badly needed goods to people in Infanta, who were forced by Typhoon Winnie to flee their homes for the relative safety of government buildings used as temporary shelters. It also sent monetary assistance to disaster-hit communities in Pangasinan, through RC Dagupan, and in Palawan, through RC Puerto Princesa, brother clubs both.
The Club’s efforts at service were rewarded with a shower of 24 awards at the district yearend awards, including the Most Outstanding Performance in International Service-Overall, Centennial Service Award-Gold, and Centennial Medal of Honor, topped by the award for Most Outstanding Club-Overall.
Pres. Freddie became a level 1 major donor to The Rotary Foundation during his term in RY 2004-2005 and moved to level 2 in RY 2014-2015 He was twice named Rotarian of the Year by the Club, while his Ann Jojo was once named Rotary Ann of the Year. In 2015, he received the Service Above Self Award, the highest award conferred by Rotary International on an individual Rotarian for his body of work in Rotary, notably in the field of nutrition for young children