VILLAR. Senate President Manuel “Manny” B. Villar, was our guest speaker last week. He attracted a good audience of some 90 Rotarians and 16 guests. This writer was unfortunately abroad then, but according to ES Anna Kun Toledo, the meeting was lively. The Senate President spoke about the accomplishments of the Senate and even asked the help of Rotary for the proposed greening project of Luneta Park. One thing is clear: The Senate today stands as a strong and indcpendent pillar of government.

LAYA. Former Prime Minister Rtn. Jimmy Laya was the finemaster of the day. The fining session, I am told, was highly entertaining. We need good fining sessions to animate our meetings, which we have not had of late. At some future time, this writer will discuss more substantially the accepted notions that have evolved about fining in Rotary.

NOMINATIONS. IPP Francis Juico presided over the nominations last week to the membership in our board of directors for the coming Rotary year. The nominations allowed were individual and not in group, to which I agree. We need to elect good leaders of the club which, as the first in Asia, leads Rotary in this part of the world. Please remember that the candidate with the highest number of votes becomes the next President of our club automatically. In filling up the ballot, do not leave blank spaces as much as possible. It may be unfair.

ATHENS. We spent eight days in Athens just last week, grappling with the rocks and stones of antiquity. Except for the theft of my laptop, it was a most satisfying experience, learning first hand about the beginnings of our civilization, Greek mythology, the battles of old and the schism in the Christian church between the East and the West. The Greek Orthodox Church is not much different from our Roman Catholic Church. Popular in Greece is the mother and child icon known here, but not there, as the Mother of Perpetual Help. My greatest challenge was climbing up the Acropolis and the monasteries at Meteora. I had a difficult time but I made it in both instances.

EXPLOSION. Violence, it seems, is the way of our world. A I write this column Tuesday evening, an explosion hit the House of Representatives. One person died and three members of Congress were injured. The statistics may be different by the time you read this. Abroad, TV news feed us with violence in Pakistan, Venezuela, Malaysia and other places. What else is new? #