Masonic Year

He brought his surgical skills to the Grand Lodge There is perhaps no better tribute to give a Filipino born on June 19 than to name him after the pride of the Malay race, Jose P. Rizal. Rizal D. Aportadera, Grand Master in 1993, was born on June 19, 1938 in Dingle, Iloilo. His father, Magdaleno M. Aportadera, a member of Saranggani Lodge No. 50 in Davao City, was a farmer and his mother, Josefa Daquila, a teacher by profession. The couple with some members of the Aportadera clan from Dingle, Iloilo, migrated to Mindanao where they formed part of the early settlers of Davao City. Their primary purpose was to develop what was then a pioneering area. Aportadera graduated as Doctor of Medicine at the University of Santo Tomas in 1960. His medical practice flour­ished so rapidly that by 1967, he was appointed as Assistant Director and concurrently Chief Surgeon of the Brokenshire Memorial Hospital where he stayed until 1980. He took advance studies in burn medicine at St. Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco, California where he was first a fellow prior to becoming a full-fledged member in the American Burn Association and the International Society for Burn Injuries in 1981. He also completed a post gradu­ate course in peripheral vascular surgery in the Medical College of Ohio in 1976. At present, he is the Chief of the Department of Surgery, Davao Medical Center and serves as a consultant on general surgery at the Davao Doctor’s Hospital. Married to Cornelia L. Protacio, a nurse by profession with a masteral degree in Education, he and his wife have four children: Michelle Marie and Eloise Ella, both of whom are graduates of Medicine; Rizal Giovanni Jr., a program director and radio broadcaster; and Michael Denton, the youngest, who is pursuing a course in BS. Biology. His two daughters are both Past Honored Queens of Bethel No. 6, International Order of Job’s Daughters in Davao City. Aportadera was raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason in Davao Lodge No. 149 in 1961. Shortly there­after he joined the Scottish Rite and became a Master of the Royal Secret in Davao bodies. In 1969 he was elected as the Worshipful Master of his Blue Lodge. In the same year he served as the Venerable Master of his Scottish Rite Lodge of Perfection. The following year the Supreme Council, A. & A. S. R. elected him to receive the rank and decoration of a Knight Commander of the Court of Honor and invested him with the Red Cap on February 13, 1971. On February 14,1975 the Supreme Council coroneted him a 33° Mason IGH. Later he was crowned as a Sovereign Grand Inspector General. Aportadera is also active in the Order of the Eastern Star and is a Past Patron of the Teodora Alonso Chapter No. 4. Aportadera has received several honors and awards not only from the Craft, but also from other civic organiza­tions. He became the President of Maharlika Charity Founda­tion in 1986 and a Past President, Rotary Club of East Davao in 1984. A sports enthusiast, he was the President of the Davao Sunday Runners Inc., and the Mindanao Association of Running Clubs. Out of all these awards and honors, there is one that he treasures very dearly, and this is when he was elected Junior Grand Warden in 1990, thereby starting his journey to the Grand East..