That big, ugly incident

All motoring journalists are up in arms about the mayhem that took place a few days ago involving a couple of young motoring journalists.

Though invited to the event, I could not go because of previous commitments, but several colleagues from the print media, and even my own television crew were there. Following is the sequence of events, as I could piece them from accounts of those who were actually there, and related herewith as factually as I can best ascertain, and with no personal color to taint the viewers’ opinions.

Vernon Sarne, editor-in-chief of well-known Top Gear Magazine and newspaper motoring columnist, wrote a long article on the about to be launched Nexus in his column Hard Top in the Manila Times on Feb. 28, 2006. Nexus is the brand name of the light commercial vehicles from China to be distributed by Auto Prominence Corp. Incidentally, the launch of the Nexus was scheduled for that same day, Feb. 28, at the company’s showroom in Makati.

Vernon wrote lengthily about the Nexus. Some of the concerns he raised included "sport designs which are hardly original."Vernon wrote "The Hover SUV, for instance, bears a striking resemblance to Isuzu’s Axiom…. The Deer looks like the last generation Toyota Hilux, the Sailor looks like the Nissan Frontier, and the Cocool looks like the Isuzu D-Max with the grille of the Mitsubishi Strada. That’s what you call ‘inspirational engineering’".

Vernon went on to say that, with our "Filipino roads", the Nexus may be a "dubious concoction that may not pass the test of durability." Vernon also singled out the distributor’s two-year/50,000 kilometer warranty, "at a time when three-year/100,000 kilometer warranty deals are already the norm" making the new vehicles’ reliability and durability suspect. But he does concede that the "extremely low price tags" of the Nexus could spell the difference for them, considering that Filipino consumers are known to be extremely price-conscious.

After enumerating the three sport utility vehicles available at the launch that day, and even mentioning the contact numbers that the public may call in case they were interested in the brand, Vernon signed off the column with this: "Would I consider buying a Chinese vehicle? Let’s just say I still have to completely shed my bias against Korean brands – to think that they are already nearly comparable to the Japanese."

Those who have read Vernon’s column can readily ascertain that the above comprise the essence of what Vernon wrote about the Chinese brand Nexus.

That evening, having been invited to the launch, Vernon, together with Aris Ilagan of Manila Bulletin, Ira Panganiban of Metroaction Magazine, Dong Magsajo of Philippine Star, and other colleagues from media attended the event. At the showroom, Aris and Vernon were discussing the features of the vehicles. When Aris asked Vernon which company assembles the Nexus vehicles, Vernon replied that it was the Great Wall Motor Co. of China, at which juncture a man, believed to be an officer of Auto Prominence Corp., challenged Vernon’s reply. According to witnesses, the guy, asked by Vernon for his calling card, said "why? Is it because you are going to misquote me also? Is this really your job to destroy people and companies?"

At this juncture, Aris, Dong, Vernon and Ira headed toward the door at the behest of Aris who said "let’s get out of here because we are not welcome here."

Before leaving, however, at the invitation of the PR consultant for the event and out of due respect for the host, Vernon went to see Mr. Paul Rodriquez, president of Auto Prominence Corp. to say goodbye. In the course of the conversation, Vernon informed us that Mr. Rodriquez demanded that Vernon take back his comments about the APC and the Nexus vehicles and that Vernon refused. It was at this point that a young man butted in and called Vernon "bobo". Vernon told him to watch his language. Apparently, Vernon did not know that the young man was Paul’s son Paulo.

Dong narrates that at that point, he and Ira were waiting for Vernon outside the showroom, and when they saw Vernon being pushed by Paul, and saw other people joining in on the altercation, they both approached the group – Ira to pacify the guys who were about to accost Vernon, and Dong to talk to Paul to cool him down. However, blows started raining on the three, and it was Ira Panganiban who took the brunt of the blows. Ira sustained a cut on his upper lip and bruises on his face and body. Vernon also fearfully narrated to us that when the melee died down Paul told him, "You don’t know us. I can put a bullet in your head right now. You should be glad you only sustained those injuries."

The three journalists proceeded to the Southern Police district at Fort Bonifacio to file a complaint against Rodriguez and his men.

That is as factual as anyone can get out of the combined witnesses accounts and police report and I have doubts if anyone can challenge these. There have been attempts to have a personal account about the incident from Mr. Rodriguez himself for a balanced view, but as it turned out he was reported to have gone on a trip to Europe the next day after the incident.

Journalism has become such a powerful tool. It is the consumers’ sounding board, and any respectable journalist worth his salt calls a spade a spade, whether this sits well with his subjects or not. We who take our job seriously also take the responsibility that goes with it just as seriously. It is our duty to consumers to give the big picture as we see it.

As this goes to print, motoring journalists’ groups have been meeting to discuss the repercussions of the incidents I have just related here. Some consensus will have been reached before this comes out. I guess you guys will just have to wait till the next column to find out. One thing is certain though, they’re not going to let it pass like just another day.

And I always thought motoring journalists do not face such violent risks.

NBN does a program revamp

Due to the political events of current days that are indeed of national interest, the National Broadcasting Network, which carries three of our four weekly television programs, made some alignments in its programming.

Hence, starting tomorrow, Sunday, Motoring Today, the longest running motoring program on Philippine television being on its 19th year of broadcast, airs at 1 o’clock in the afternoon, while Business & Leisure, at 15 years, the longest running business & lifestyle TV show airs in the evening at 11 o’clock.

I still have to know whether Auto Focus, the premier motor show on TV that exclusively centers on the automobile and the auto industry and recently regularly scheduled for Friday evenings at 10 o’clock, would be maintained in the same time slot.

Well, our fourth weekly TV show, Breaking Barriers, is a one hour interview program that I co-host with my brother Rey Gamboa, which spotlights movers and shakers from the government, business and different sectors of society or people who are in the news or in the middle of controversies, airs every Wednesday at midnight on IBC TV-13.

All these are developmental TV programs that are being produced by Sunshine Television (STV) for the Social Communications Foundation for Asia (SOCICOM) aimed at uplifting the viewing standards of the Pinoy TV viewers.

Mabuhay!!! Be proud to be a Filipino.

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