Fellow Rotarians of Iligan,

We did well in aiding the victims of typhoon Ondoy and Peping.  We did our share and I am proud of those members among us who help in their own small way.

This tragedy in our midst is unprecedented in its scope and nature.  Places which are supposedly flood free are now floating in waist deep waters.  SM which is known to be very meticulous in locating sites for their stores, could not believed that their Pangasinan branch is inundated up to the rafters!!

Fellow Rotarians what we are observing is an onslaught of nature.  People call it Acts of God, I call it Acts of Nature.  For a loving God could not mastermind such a disaster, He finds no pleasure even in the death of the wicked.

What happened to our country is a mixture between lack of preparedness,foolhardiness , abuse of our resources and above all unrighteousness among our leaders.

While government was busy doing their press conferences, private citizens like you and me rush to the sites and rescued friends, relatives and neighbors.  We were even ahead of the NDCC!!  Which goes to show how important Rotary is to the community.

While GMA and Gibo were  busy giving instructions to their people, businessmen, professionals and private citizens mobilize themselves to save precious lives and properties.  We cannot bureaucraticize disasters.  Response must be swift and fast and that is what some of our Fellow Rotarians did in the midst of those rampaging waters.

The Bible clearly states that “righteousness exalts a nation and sin is a repraoch to its people”.  It also shows that unrighteous leaders lead to disaster.   The king sins and the entire nation suffers.  This was the case of Pharaoh during the time of  Moses.  This was the same case with King David, he sinned and the entire Israeli nation suffered.  King Solomon, who was by far was the richest of kings and full of wisdom succumbed to idolatry because of his many wives.  In the end his kingdom was divided.

Unrighteousness leads to disaster for the entire nation.  The King sins, the entire nation suffers.  This is a Biblical principle.  For God can never reach out His hands to a people who are unrepentant and proud.  The devil will always have legal ground.

And that is why in 2 Chronicles 7:14 God said, “if my people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and repent of their sins, then I will look down from heaven and heal their land” (parapharase).  Repentance brings restitution.  Humbleness brings healing.

Fellow Rotarians we stand on high moral grounds-let us lead our city to higher grounds of righteousness.  Let us not let the enemy satan-have legal ground over us.  Let us stand with our nation in repentance and humble ourselves before God and He will stop the plague and pestilence for us.  That is His promise.

My prayer is that our club be the moral force of our city.  Let us live lives of exemplary example.  We are not perfect that is true.  We have our shortcomings, we have our trials.  But all God ask of us is a heart that is for Him alone.  A perfect life we cannot have, but a perfect heart is possible for those who seek Him with all their hearts.

A blessed day to all!!!

President Aji Garbanzos