“…Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?…” –Isaiah 49:15
I congratulate, in all earnestness, Lyne Alano Abanilla, former Manila Bulletin classified ads vice president and district governor for Rotary International 3810, which covers Manila, Pasay City, Cavite, and Occidental Mindoro. Currently, she is the Physicians for Peace Philippines country director and was recently selected as 2017 Ulirang Ina ng Pilipinas.
Abanilla was named “outstanding mother of the year” by the Ulirang Ina Ama Awards Foundation in a glittery ceremony at the Manila Hotel Centennial Hall on May 13. There ceremony was even more meaningful with the presence of Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and former Chief Justice Hilario Davide, Jr.
According to a Ulirang Ina Ama Awards Foundation bulletin, they conduct an annual selection of women considered to have shown extraordinary savvy in their roles as matriarch in a Filipino home and as a responsible citizen. Abanilla’s selection coincided with the foundations 25th year of recognizing outstanding women.
A mother that took great care of her kids, work, and service
According to Ulirang Ina Ama Awards Foundation, Abanilla, a fellow Rotary Club of Intramuros Manila member, was recognized because she raised three children on her own, from their formative years into adulthood. For her, a mere rank-and-file Manila Bulletin employee in her early years with the paper, it didn’t seem to matter that her kids were growing up. Despite a financial handicap, she managed to send her kits to college, where they finished their degrees on time. This may have been one of the reasons why the owners at the Manila Bulletin trusted her so much, where she eventually ascended to classified ads vice president until she retired in 2015.
The entire time she was balancing her role as a mother of three and as an officer of the newspaper, dealing with its greatest source of income. In addition, she also committed to doing charitable work, while taxing given her scenario, when found her earning the position of Rotary Club of Intramuros president and, later, Rotary International 3810 district governor.
‘A mother to countless children’
As a Rotary Club member, Abanilla led many charity projects, including “Gamit Aral Bags,” where thousands of elementary school students particularly in calamity-stricken areas were given school bags and school supplies, along with providing prosthetics, or artificial legs and limbs, or hands made of wood or plastic, for those who had undergone amputation.
Her work garnered the attention of Rotary leaders in the United States, who named her public relations officer for the South Pacific. During her years in the position, she received countless awards.
Today, Abanilla is still involved with charity projects, through Physicians for Peace Philippines. She is focused on making sure elementary school students have good vision and eyesight in order to read and understand their lessons well. In her current role, she has literally crisscrossed the four corners of the Philippine archipelago.
Indeed, she is not just the mother to her children, but the thousands whose vision she is helping to correct.
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