Greetings from ICD Section IX Philippines!
 
 I am deeply honored and humbled to serve as the 55th President of the International College of Dentists Section IX Philippines that has had excellent and dedicated  leaders whose outstanding achievements  have been my inspiration. To build upon their 55 years of legacy is really a positive motivator and I am full of gratitude for the opportunity.
 
I am looking forward with great anticipation and confident that our Section IX will continue to contribute to humanitarian services, empower great leaders to improve the quality of life of our countrymen, and achieve far more and beyond for the betterment of the College. It gives me great joy and courage to know that my father, ICD Master Life Fellow and Councilor Dr. Hermogenes  Villareal  will always be my adviser,  my guide  and my advocate.
 
This year’s theme, “Embracing the Tides of Change”, is a salute to all of us as we have all been through a lot of challenges and changes these past two years and we were able to pull through and adapt. There will be more expected and unexpected challenges, but we are ready and willing to face these. We will work hand in hand to uphold the College core values: Leadership, Recognition, Humanitarianism, Professional Relations and Education.
 
As we make that first step for this ICD year 2023, allow me to give an overview of ongoing projects of our standing committees as well as give a glimpse of what is in store for us,
 
First, we have our ICD Gawad Kalinga – Our Housing Project in Bagac, Bataan (P200,000/ House now) – while we are eyeing to improve the water supply, livelihood projects for the community. ie. Piggery and poultry (chicken and eggs), it is only right to mention how it all began in 2007. With a generous donation of over 3 Hectares of land given by the late brothers, Life Fellow Felipe Gonzales, and Master Life Fellow Primo Gonzales. The First person to chair the project was Past President Fellow Faye Dizon. In 2015, ICD built the first 5 homes which were subsequently turned over to the first 5 homeless families. In the succeeding years, through the efforts of all the Fellows led by ICD-GC Project Chairman Past President Fellow Vicky Pangilinan, ICD Section IX completed 20 homes at the ICD GK village which included an ICD Centennial Home along with a Multi-Purpose Hall with ICD-GK Library & Office, Male & Female Toilets, water pump and veggie farm. A sports complex was also constructed with yours truly as project chairman. While during the term of IPP Fellow Fidel Bondoc, 3 more homes were constructed. We all take pride in this housing project as it is a privilege to provide for the underserved and the homeless in order for them to have better lives with the hope that they too could serve others.
 
Second, our Scholarship program – where we hope to continue getting deserving dental students and encourage former scholars to get involved in the program.
 
Then we also have projects like:
1.     Membership Campaign program
2.     Faculty development
3.     Student leadership program
4.     Community service like dental missions and feeding programs
 
And to keep up with the digital age we will have a more active presence on social media – facebook, twitter and Instagram. I would also like to share my plan of putting up an official website of ICD Section IX Philippines where we will put information about our section and the International Council. So we will have there our membership portal and hopefully we can integrate renewal/payments for membership dues. There will also be info for future fellows. We will have a Project portal for our ongoing and future projects, Media portal for pictures, publications and recordings of lectures and seminars.
 
We also aim to have more collaboration with the International Council through the projects approved and endorsed by the Executive Committee headed by International President Dr. Chang. And with President Chang and Councilor Villareal’s blessings, I believe we will be able to accomplish this. I would like to thank the World Headquarters for its continued support to Section IX.
 
As we are all hopeful that the Covid-19 pandemic will truly come to an end, we look forward to better times ahead and a brighter future as we carry on with ICD’s mission.