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I HAD
many heroes in the year past, but I’ll mention only
seven here. I know the unmentioned wouldn’t mind as
they know fully well they are as close to my heart as to
the mentioned, and are as deserving of heroic praise in
my yardstick of what heroism is, to say the least.
So,
fellers, brush aside jealousy, please, for it won’t get
us nowhere and might only make us, in the words of John
Lennon and Paul McCartney, “nowhere men.”
My
Magnificent 7 in ’07 were Mel Dizon of Mitsubishi, Ariel
de Jesus of Subaru, Raymond Tribdino of Nissan, Art
Balmadrid of Isuzu, Willy Soong of Ferrari/Maserati/Land
Rover, Arnel Doria of Honda and Dan Isla of Toyota.
Why
them?
Well,
through thick and thin, so to speak, they stuck by me,
stood by my side.
Almost
every week in 2007, they were with me, toiling hard
enough to help keep a newspaper (The Philippine
Chronicle) afloat through their words of wisdom and
insightful views on car nuances in particular and the
automotive industry in general.
In a
special portion of the motoring section of that lamented
newspaper—conceived in May 2006, born September 2006 and
died September 2007—that I had edited, each one of them
tossed in a piece of their brilliant minds, week by
week, to keep readers abreast with the motoring beat in
that now much-missed, roundtable discussion called “The
Auto Talk Topic.”
I had
thrown a question each week to them about cars or on
anything under the sun about cars, or the state of
affairs in the motoring industry and, pronto, they’d
fire back with answers and logic that became almost
staple food of the automotive business for almost a
year.
Although
the newspaper never did quite reach its targets
successfully due to network deficiencies and
infancy-related drawbacks, the babe-in-the-woods outfit
still fared well by national standards, thanks to tried
and tested friends and supporters like the Philippine
Airlines, which carried the paper in all its flights
(take a bow, Jimmy B and Henry S U).
And
again, although that lamented newspaper was constantly
struggling to elbow its way into the so-called big
league like most new players are wont to experience, it
had great promise and, during the few times that it had
scored solid, if not knockout, punches, “The Auto Talk
Topic” had made an impact, if not a foothold on the
scene, albeit momentaril—modesty aside.
Thanks,
indeed, and here are my Magnificent 7 in ’07!
Mel
Dizon and Willy Soong were famous for their oneliners.
They were men of few words, indeed, but each has a
wealth of action tucked under his belt; their wit and
incisive mind awed readers without let-up.
Arnel
Doria was kilometric most of the time but each of his
sentences packed so much wallop that once you started
reading his discourse, you’d feel the Gettysburg Address
was peanuts all the time.
Raymond
Tribdino was almost always cerebral, at times delving on
levitating angst. He was always inspired churning out
those pieces that, even when he was in Singapore or
Tokyo for a trip, or while at the waiting lounge of any
airport that he might have been stuck in, he’d surprise
you with punch line after punch line—proof of his
serious study of the car business since he embraced the
vocation in a major career switch almost a generation
ago.
Art
Balmadrid was the master of the technical, who treaded
the course with gusto as he had always wished—quite
impeccably—to be truer than true in his dissertation of
every subject discussed at hand. Once he began his
premise, there was no stopping, disputing him.
As
usual, Ariel de Jesus was the irreverent, who never
threw caution to the winds in his bang-bang style of
dissecting national issues on automotive manufacturing
and specific car matters as well, never mincing words in
a devil-may-care stance—a stand that has brought him
fame, if not notoriety, as the Che Guevara of the
Philippine motoring industry, the rebel with a cause,
though.
Dan Isla
was the embodiment of everything good and persevered in
reflecting the true picture of the motoring industry
with his patented, carefully worded missiles. His
inimitable style of zeroing in on any subject from
skin-to-core struck a death blow to any contradictory
idea that once you are through reading his mind, you’d
involuntarily say, “Amen to all that.”
Thank
you, my heroes. Thank you for making my life not that
miserable in ’07.
Pee stop
All
roads virtually lead today, Friday, to The Orchard in
Dasmariñas, Cavite, for the APT Cup, a much-awaited
year-opener golf tournament started 11 years ago by the
dashing and superbly creative, dear, dear friend of
Rolly Enriquez, Art Tugade. Not one to miss it himself
is Jimmy Bautista, the gentleman, low-key and extremely
humble president of the Philippine Airlines. As proof,
Jimmy texted me on New Year’s Day, “See you Jan. 4 at
the APT Cup.” Cheers! |
