Pres. Cristino “Tito” Panlilio was the first president to serve under the newly formedDistrict 3830.
This year is best remembered for a successful water project that ought to be a templatefor replication. Putting his expertise in waterworks to good use for Rotary, Pres. Tito constructed a water system designed to deliver piped water straight to the homes of an initial 1,000 families in three neighboring barangays—Panipuan, Molino and Balite— Fernando, Pampanga. The project was funded by a 3-H grant of US$189,000 fromTRF, the Club’s first and only 3H grant so far, including a contribution of $9,250 from District 2820-Ibaraki, Japan, the Club’s international partner, and $18,500 from the Club. The project design specified that every house be outfitted with a water meter and that the people pay for their water consumption at subsidized prices. Also built into the project design was a provision that RC Makati form a service foundation to manage and operate the system, with RC Makati members, acting in their personal capacity, serving as trustees. This is by far RC Makati’s biggest and most heavily funded project. Moreover, it is sustainable and enduring as per its lofty vision committed to Rotary International.
From the first waterworks founded in Pampanga in 2000, Pres. Tito has completed one more waterworks in Tarlac in 2009 and two in Ilocos Sur in 2016. All told in a few years the net cash flow of all of these units will reach P5 Million per annum that again will be used to fund future waterworks in impoverished municipalities or barangays.
Pres. Tito’s term also marked the kickoff for the Partnership in Service Program (PSP), a grants scheme that was considered the Philippine version of The Rotary Foundation’s matching grants program. PSP extended financial assistance to Rotary Clubs throughout the hilippines with big ideas but limited means by providing them with outright grants of up to P50,000 to fund projects in the fields of education, health, nutrition, water, and skills training, among others. In its initial year, the Club earmarked P1million for the Program and approved five applications with grants totaling P250,000.
In the Youth sector, the Club organized two Rotaract Clubs—the Rotaract Tulong-Tulong Tayo Club, which sponsored a movie premier to raise fund for their projects, and the Rotaract Club of San Antonio Parish, which conducted catechism classes for children in Guadalupe Viejo.
Under Ways & Means, the Rotary Anns were able to raise P1.57 million from the Christmas Bazaar and, carrying on with the Last Angel Project, brought gifts to some 700 kids in select communities, project sites, and orphanages, with the Anns personally delivering the presents to them.
The Club also manifested its advocacy for the protection of the environment by undertaking a massive tree-planting activity in which Rotarians fanned out to different sections of the South Superhighway, from Makati to Muntinlupa, to plant trees on designated spots.
The efforts of the International Service directorate culminated in the signing of a memorandum of agreement establishing sister-club relations with the Rotary Club of Hong Kong, “mother” of all HK Rotary Clubs.
The year ended with Pres. Tito and Ann Brin leading a large delegation of 25 RC Makati Rotarians and Anns on a fellowship tour of Australia and South America, en route to Buenos Aires, Argentina where they represented the Club, and the then fledgling District 3830, in the RI Convention.