Vicente ALvarez Dizon (1905 - 1947) was born on April 5, 1905 in Malate, Manila. His parents were Jose Sampedro Dizon, a native of Bacolor, and Rosa Carlos Alvarez, of Concepcion, Tarlac. His father (University of Santo Tomas 1897) was a landscape artist, and botanist-agronomist for the Bureau of Agriculture. As an agronomist and agricultural inspector, Mr. Jose S. Dizon was assigned to several towns like Capas, Tarlac, Magalang, Pampanga, San Isidro, Nueva Ecija. Vicente had his early schooling at Malate Primary School; then continued his intermediate studies in the towns where his father was assigned. Read More

 

 

“According to my brother Daniel Antonio Henson-Dizon, on December 8, 1829 – the Feast of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, the Barrio of Culiat became the town of Angeles and this was accomplished through the efforts of the founder, Don Angel Pantaleon de Miranda and his only son-in-law, Dr. Mariano Henson y Paras, L.L.D. It was given the beautiful name of “EL PUEBLO DE LOS ANGELES” (official Spanish name, i.e., “The Town of the Angels”) in honor of the Christian name of the founder and the titular patrons of the town: “Los Santos Angeles Custodios”. The first mayor was Don Ciriaco de Miranda, the only son of the founder. The first town parish priest was a Pampango named Rev. Fr. Macario Paras. Read More

 

 

No less than Rotary International President Bill Boyd and his spouse Lorna graced the Rotary Institute for Zones 4B, 6B and 7B held last December 1-3, 2006, at the very impressive Gran Melia in Jakarta, Indonesia. Also present were Past RI Vice President Gary Huang and Trustee Bob Scott and spouse Ann (of Canada). The Convenor was Director Noraseth Pathmanand who was with his charming spouse Chotima. Chaired by PDG Mark Wong of District 3400, Institute attendance had more than 450 past, present and incoming district governors, and other Rotary leaders from various districts and communities in South East Asia. Read More

 

 

For this Zone Institute, we decided to fly budget through DMIA (Diosdado Macapagal International Airport) in Clark Special Freeport Zone. For more than year now, AirAsia, the leading and largest low fare airline in Asia, has launched an online campaign that offered an exciting range of super low-fares. So we booked three months early before our scheduled departure to take advantage of the irresistible low fare deals. There was a big group of Rotarians from several Districts who flew through DMIA and we were quite a noisy group. Read More

 

 

After that first visit, there were several more...this time as the spouse of a Past DIstrict Governor...Ben and I were in Taipei for our first Zone 4 Institute on December 12-14 in 1986 with about 150 RI Officers in Asia Zone Four attending. This was hosted by the Rotary club of Taipei. In 1994 the Rotary International Convention was held from June 12-15 in Taipei City and this was chaired by PDG George Huang. The venue was held at the huge Taipei World Trade Convention & Exhibition Center and guests of honor included R.I. President Robert Barth and R.I. President- Elect Bill Huntley. We stayed at the Grand Hotel then, but in subsequent Zone institutes we stayed at the Howard Hotel then back again at Grand Hotel. In Ben’s stint as Regional Rotary Foundation Coordinator from 1996 to 1998 we revisited K.L Malaysia, Bangkok, Thailand, Hong Kong and Taipei (which included Taichung and Kaoshuing). In our last visit there we were given a room at the Grand Hotel Annex so we didn’t have any view had a long way to walo the lobby. Read More

 

 

June 11, 2007. We arrived in San Francisco to spend four cool, glorious days before flying to Utah.We did the rounds of the museums and several art galleries, which were a short walking distance from our jewel of a hotel, the Chancellor Hotel, located near Union Square. On our second day, a nephew, Carlo Ricafort, a visual artist like me who was based there, fetched us. Our last visit to San Francisco was in 1984 and I had vague memories of visiting the Golden Gate Park. Carlo brought us first to the newly renovated de Young Museum, San Francisco’s oldest museum. Read More

 

 

It was just by chance that we happened to see a Post-Convention Tour being offered on the Internet prior to the Salt Lake City Convention. We booked early for the tour offered by Western Leisure Tours. So, after the Convention when most of the Rotarians have left for home, we stayed for an extra day at the Marriott Hotel Downtown which was located across the Salt Palace Convention Center. We had a quiet dinner at the dinning hall which was now quite deserted and went to bed early to wake up in time for our 7:00 A.M. pick-up. We had a hurried breakfast and were just in time with our luggage that we lugged out of the lobby to “Le Bus” our huge bus for the next few days. We were surprised when we saw a couple that was quite familiar. It was Ben’s classmate as Training Leader (in Anaheim in 2004) PDG Michael Webb of England and spouse Alison. We picked up other Rotarians and their spouses from the other hotels and then we were on our way. The bus drove us around Salt Lake City and we passed by several landmarks that we have visited previously. Read More

 

 

Last March 4, we got an urgent phone call from Australia. The lady calling from the other end informed us about an invitation she faxed from President D. K. Lee (of Korea) to represent him at the District Conference of District 7950 to be held in West Point, New York on May 14 to 17, 2009. Since we had a new fax number, we did not get her fax, so, she e-mailed us instead, and this is the letter we received from RI: Read More

 

 

In September of 2008 at the Seoul Presidential Conference, fifty thousand Korean Rotarians committed to build a mother and child (maternity) hospital, in support of reducing child mortality. Donations came from both Korean Rotarians and the Community Chest of Korea, which matched funds, Won per Won, totaling to a collective donation of 1 billion won (about US$870,000). After securing one Billion Won, then RI President D.K. Lee, in cooperation with the Korea International Health Foundation, launched a project to build a hospital for mother and children in Tumbi, Pwani Region of Tanzania. Read More

 

 

The first ever Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTBMLE) Grand Alliance StratPlan was held last November 5 - 6, 2009 at Tagaytay International Convention Center (TICC). I was invited to represent DILA Philippines Foundation, Inc. (Defenders of the Indigenous Languages of the Archipelago) and with me was Andrea Gatchalian who represented Akademyang Kapampangan (AKKAP) and Angeles University Foundation (AUF).  Read More

 

 

BEN and I were quite excited to visit Kota Kinabalu as we have had several invitations from our Rotarian friends PP Alfred Sii and Rtn. Paul Thien, PDG Edward Burongoh and DG Zainie Aucasa to visit them. We have met Alfred and Paul a few times in Clark when they would make stopovers from their visits to Dagupan and Cebu and we treated them to a well-known Bulaluhan Place in Clark at the Air Force City and they really savored and enjoyed the Bulalo Soup every time they came.  Read More

 

 

When Ben told me that Mr. Geoffrey Martinez, President of Caritas Health Shield invited us to join him in hosting a lunch for Secretary of Health Enrique Ona, M.D. in Roxas City, we never thought it would the 3-day Capiztahan Celebration, which would be graced by numerous political, TV, and media personalities. We left Angeles at 5:30 A.M. to catch a Cebu Pacific flight at 10 A.M. As soon as we landed from a 45-minute Cebu Pacific flight from NAIA Terminal 3, we were met at the Roxas City Airport by Mr. Martinez and were given unique leis made of shells. We were whisked to President’s Inn and after checking-in, we drove right away to People’s Park and since it was almost high noon, I decided to seek shelter in one of the canopies. To my surprise, Miss Jessica Soho was there with the GMA 7 TV crew. They were there to shoot a live cooking demo from my idol, Ms. Gaita Fores of CIBO fame. So, I took it upon myself to get step-by-step photos of the whole demonstration...a sort of Linguini a la vongole using fres  tomatoes, prawns and baby Diwal.  Read More

 

 

January 15...We touched down at Suvarnabhumi Airport at 5:30 pm and we didn’t know that we had to take a bus or taxi to go to Don Muang Airport to be able to check-in at Amari Don Muang for an overnight stay to take the local Nok Air flight to Chiang Mai the next morning. Read More