A mere 5 years after serving as Club President, Tony Quila took on the helm of District 3830 as governor on Rotary’s most auspicious year—its 100th anniversary. As Centennial Governor, Gov. Tony led the district in celebration through a year-long program of service and fellowship, scoring many achievements—highest in district history in unrestricted Paul Harris contributions of $180,000, highest per capita TRF contribution, and highest net membership growth in district history, among others. These accomplishments earned him an RI Centennial Leadership Award, the only Filipino governor so honored and one of only 100 (out of 529 governors) recipients of said award in the world.
During his term as president, the Club won approval for 3 matching grants: for the Heather Kinross Center for Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Dev’t., the National Resource Center for the Handicapped and the Makati Multipurpose Cooperative.
The Heather Kinross Center for Skills Training & Entrepreneurial Development, Heather Kinross Center for short, was the up-leveled version of the long-running Makati Rotary Training Center and the Club’s direct response to Rotary’s challenge to help reduce poverty in the world.
Named in honor of the late Heather Kinross, wife of Glen Kinross, RI president in 1997-1998, it was conceived by Pres. J. Antonio “Tony” Quila as a concrete expression of his desire to “teach a man how to fish rather than give him fish” and a means to arm men and women with employable skills to earn a decent living and better their lives. Its offerings on its maiden year were a five-month, comprehensive course on information technology called Information Technology Outreach Program (ITOP) for out-of-school youth and a short course for would-be electricians.
The Center was the recipient of a $40,000 matching grant from The Rotary Foundation for a program that sought to create opportunities for livelihood in the form of jobs or micro businesses for residents of the Tejeros Tenement Housing, the Club’s adopted community. Two other matching grants, applied for in the year prior, were approved and released this year—one, for the National Resource Center for the Handicapped and two, for the Makati Multipurpose Cooperative.
Being a founding member of the Makati Fire Safety Foundation Inc. (MAFSAFI), the Club joined hands with other MAFSAFI members and the Bureau of Fire Protection for the staging of the first Makati Fire Safety Compliance Awards, a recognition program for buildings and enterprises that have complied with the Fire and Building Codes of the Philippines. The awarding ceremony was timed to serve as the culminating activity for the observance of Fire Prevention Month in March. Earlier on, the Foundation organized two seminars and a forum on fire safety awareness in the lead-up to Fire Prevention Month.
Another project set in motion this year that has endured to the present is the Last Angel Project, a Christmas gift-giving activity conceived by Ann Brin Panlilio as an adjunct of the Christmas Bazaar, which that year delivered a record P1.675 million to the Club treasury. Both the bazaar and the Last Angel were chaired by First Ann Angela Quila.
In Community Service, the Club organized several medical missions that benefited 1,350 patients and delivered gift bags to the residents of Guadalupe Viejo and the wards of the Makabata Foundation under the aegis of the Christmas Package Drive.
Pres. Tony led a Club delegation on a week-long fellowship trip to the Kingdom of Nepal, arranged with the Nepal Consular Office headed by Honorary Consul Jesus Zulueta, and a 16-person delegation to the 1999 RI Convention in Singapore.
In celebration of the Club’s 33rd anniversary, he enlisted 33 new Paul Harris Fellows, one for every year of the Club’s existence.
In 2002-2003, Pres. Tony received the Service Above Self Award from Rotary International, one of six in the Club so honored.