Toyota thanks media for ‘Triple Crown’

A three-tiered crown is what sym-bolizes the outstanding performance of Toyota Mo-tor Philip-pines Corp. in the local automotive market in 2002.

Toyota was Number One in passenger car sales, Number One in commercial vehicle sales and Number One in overall sales – thus the Triple Crown.

And for this, TMPC set aside exclusively for the motoring media a night of merry-making, raffle of valuable prizes, good food together with flowing expensive wines and spirits at the Dish, Rockwell Center in Makati.

Mr. Nobuharu Tabata, Toyota’s chief executive in the country, welcomed the journalists and extended his appreciation for the vital role that the local motoring media has played not only in helping Toyota achieve this industry milestone but also in its continued commitment to keep the public consistently informed on the developments in the automotive industry. He also expressed that the commitment greatly contributed to the sector’s sustained survival despite these trying times of economic hardships.

To further dramatize the unprecedented heights that Toyota Motor Philippines has reached – that of being truly Number One, Mr. Danny Isla, TMPC’s first vice president for marketing, chose the Beatles – the undisputed Number One rock and roll band in the world’s entire musical history – to be the center point of the night’s entertainment. To further emphasize the parallelism, the workaholic top mar-keting honcho of To-yota Motor Philip-pines, delivered a well-crafted thank you speech with most of the words lif-ted from the nume-rous immortal hits of the "mopped top" quartet.

After much toe tapping and finger snapping from their seats, many of the journalists together with Toyota executives took to the dance floor, and went through the motions of the popular dance steps of the era, as if by instinct. While others who had the yen for straining their vocal cords ala Beatles took to the stage and belted many nostalgic hits of the "Fab Four."

It was so much of a fun party that the Dish was the last to close among the enter-tainment establishments at the Rockwell Plant that night with the cars of some of the journalists and Toyota executives the last to leave the basement parking area.

Congratulations to Toyota Motor Philippines for the "Triple Crown"!

US Cigar Club’s first meeting for 2003

It has been quite a while since the mem-bers of this exclusive group met and the Century Park Hotel’s Cellar Pub, the offi-cial club venue was a buzz recently with ci-gar and wine aficionados and lovers of the good life for the first meeting of the year of the US Cigar Club.

A memorable evening it was as it marked the formal introduction of Century Park’s new GM, Mr. Paul Gill to the club members and a farewell fete to one of its founding members – Mr. Bobby Carpio.

Present Club president Barry Barker did the honors of officially welcoming Paul and bidding Bobby adieu.

As much as a gracious host as he has always been, Cellar Pub proprietor Bobby Joseph saw to it that everybody was having a grand time while CPH executive chef Rudy Velasco, as the club tradition dictates, came up with a real sumptuous dinner for everyone’s gastronomic delight.

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