Shadow

A wedding and a diamond

I’ve never been in so many airports in 72 hours than last weekend when I attended a wedding in Central Visayas and a diamond jubilee of a Rotary Club in Mindanao, a day after the other.

First stop was Panglao, Bohol, for the wedding of Alvin Mosquisa and Mariane Gamboa last Friday. The bride is the only daughter of former PNP Chief Archie Gamboa and Twinkle who happens to be my classmate as incoming District Governor of Rotary District 3860.

Of course it was heightened security at the Tagbilaran airport when we landed because Chief PNP Rodolfo Azurin and Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa were among the ninongs among other generals who were close friends of Archie.

The wedding was held at the iconic St. Augustine Church that withstood the 2013 earthquake that devastated much of Bohol. It was a beautiful church with murals done on its ceiling and though it was constructed in the 1890s, it wasn’t until 1924 that it was eventually finished.

Reception followed at the Henann Convention Center where guests were entertained by cultural presentations including performances from the famous Loboc Children’s Choir.

The Gamboa family members are active in Rotary so definitely there were a lot of Rotarians who flew in from all parts of the country. Among the godparents were Past District Governor Riz Reyes from Davao and another classmate Governor, Gigi Go from Cagayan de Oro.

The men and women of the Rotary Club of Zamboanga City with their spouses and guests.*

Also in attendance were our batchmates Paul Galang and wife, Carol, Rudy and Merle Enriquez and Lai De la Cruz and Past District Governors MeAnne Solomon and Anna Bumagat.

The day after the wedding, I flew back to Manila to take my flight to Zamboanga to attend the 75th anniversary of the Rotary Club of Zamboanga City, the 11th Rotary Club formed in the Philippines and the third in our District 3850 after the mother clubs of Iloilo and Bacolod.

The bigwigs of Philippine Rotary were in attendance including Past Rotary International Directors Guiller Tumangan and Raffy Garcia, District Governor John Michael “Kano” Ng of our district, Past District Governors Ramon Cua Locsin, Jun Farcon, Evett Olivan, Lewi Tolentino, Art Tan, newly-elected District Governor Nominee Designate Winston Santos, and Past District Governors Oliver Ong and Edwin To who happen to be members of the Zamboanga mother club.

Guest of honor was Zamboanga Mayor John Dalipe who spoke about the collaboration between the city and civic organizations like Rotary that lends additional help to the development of their community.

Congratulations to President Oliver Cheong and the men and women of RC Zamboanga City for a very meaningful diamond celebration that started with the inauguration of a children’s park in the morning that lasted till the wee hours of the following day.

I went to bed just after midnight though as I had to meet my incoming assistant governors and presidents to discuss our upcoming trainings in Boracay. Of course one should not leave Zamboanga without eating their famous curacha and we had a feast of that along with huge tiger prawns and crab meat courtesy of Past President Sixto “Jun” Kwan.

After the sumptuous lunch, I had to take my leave to join Kano and Ramon for our flight home via Cebu this time. And just when you thought everything was perfect, our flights home were delayed and it wasn’t until almost 10 p.m. that I got home Sunday after literally touring Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, in five airports.*

Secured By miniOrangeSecured By miniOrange