Ang Dabawenyo

Last week I was the guest of honor and speaker of the Rotary Club of Davao — the ‘mother club’ of all Rotary Clubs here. Although it was my second time to be invited by this Club (the first was back in 2004), it still felt rather intimidating, what with the presence of Davao’s captains of industry. It was nice that some of the members went out of their way to make me feel at home in their clubhouse. They invited me to apprise them of the present situation of Davao’s I.T. industry.

It is interesting, the culture of the Rotary. While I have no real interest to join any of their Clubs in Davao, I do admire what the Rotary stands for. I believe it’s service to society above self. This is evident in the 4-Way Test that Rotarians are supposed to practice, in everything they think, feel or do.

What I did join some years back was the Davao Junior Chamber. Although I could see the purpose of the Jaycees movement — basically, leadership training — I found that it lacked the community-service aspect of a civic organization. The Jaycees is focused on process rather than on result. I suppose this is understandable, because of the nature of the Jaycees as an organization. The Rotary, on the other hand, is focused on the end result.

This week I’m going to be the speaker at another Rotary Club weekly meeting, this time East Davao’s. I’m glad that I am given this chance to spread the word about the information technology industry of Davao. We do need all the support we can get, especially from the city’s leading businessmen and professionals.