Parañaque Mayor Bernabe clears the air

In light of recent inquiries sent to this column and similarly to our TV show Motoring Today regarding the true status of major BF Homes gates with regard to public access, we have decided to interview the dynamic mayor of Parañaque City, the Honorable Florencio “Jun” Bernabe on camera to clear once and for all the controversy.

The good mayor, aside from announcing the significant terms of the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the City Government of Parañaque and the United B.F. Homeowners Association, Inc. (UBFHI) on the Motoring Forum portion of our TV show, also sent me a copy of the said MOA. Some of the more significant points of the MOA relevant to the issue, I shall quote in this week’s column.

To begin with major areas of the subdivision have been declared commercial areas by the Supreme Court, thus the court noted:

“…the increasing number of homeowners in BF Homes Paranaque necessitated the addition of commercial areas in the subdivision to service the homeowners along El Grande and Aguirre Avenues already converted their residences into business establishments. Furthermore, as found by the Court of Appeals, El Grande and Aguirre Avenues are main thoroughfares in BF Homes Parañaque which have long been commercialized.

Even petitioner UBFHAI, the recognized umbrella organization of all homeowners’ associations in BF Homes Paranaque, acknowledge the need for additional commercial area x x x as early as 30 July 1989,…”

The roads of El Grande and Aguirre Avenues are already classified as special commercial zones and thus must be accessible to the general public.

“…El Grande and Aguirre Avenues shall be opened to the public from 9:00am to 4:00pm and from 6:00pm to 4:00am except commercial or industrial vehicles which shall be subject to such reasonable regulations set forth herein;

…Homeowners or residents of BF Homes subdivision shall not at any time be denied access to and from their respective residences in the subdivision, even if they do not have such car stickers, provided they present identification papers or documents to the security guards showing that they are indeed residents of the subdivision;”

Those are some excerpts from the MOA between the City of Parañaque and UBFHAI that are relevant to the issue of residents’ and the public’s access to BF Homes.

We hope this would guide all the parties involved and finally put the controversy to rest. Let’s not make those gates as possible “powder kegs” of violence between legitimate residents and the security guards who may have been given vague orders to follow.

And for this we thank the hard-working and very dynamic Mayor of Parañaque, Mayor Jun Bernabe to help clear the air and avert untoward incidents that can be avoided by the sheer spread of information.

Ford reacts to “inaccurate report”

While on my way to the office last week I was surprised to receive a text message from an unfamiliar number asking if I could take a call. Not wearing my reading glasses I had difficulty trying to decipher the name of the text sender. So, I just decided to press the call button and almost rudely ask, “Who’s this?”

And to my surprise it was the very cordial president of Ford Group Philippines saying, “Hi Butch, this is Rick Baker. Would you have a minute to talk?”

Having had light moments with Mr. Baker in the past like during a “one-on-one” TV interview I had with him for my show Business & Leisure and whenever we get to meet in Ford events, I was really tempted to say, “Ok Rick, you’re on and I’m counting, 60 seconds…59…58...”

But somehow I was able to sense a tone of urgency and grave concern subliminally in his voice despite his ever friendly manner and tone of speaking. So I decided to switch modes with the old cliché, “And to what do I owe this privilege of a phone call from the president of Ford Philippines?”

And then it was his turn to let his hair down by really sounding what I perceived he really felt – disappointed.

He was referring to a news item that appeared in a daily broadsheet (not The Philippine STAR) last week, “Ford Philippines retrenches 30 executives”, which he described as “having a number of inaccuracies and misinformation”. And what was worse, according to the serious-looking but indeed friendly Ford Philippines president was that some of these were attributed to him, which he knew at no time did he specifically say in any of his interviews.

Rick sadly added, “What’s very ironic here Butch, was that just a few days ago before the article came out I was extolling the high level of skillful and professional journalism that’s being practiced by the local motoring media that’s so much more deserving of the recently handed out ‘Henry Ford Awards’ for exceptional and outstanding journalism.”

In his letter to the editors of the newspaper that published the item in Ford’s efforts to clarify and rectify its inaccuracies, he wrote, “The article reflects of not only grossly inaccurate but highly irresponsible journalism.”

To further quote Mr. Baker’s letter of clarification, “First and foremost is that the Ford Group Philippines staff that recently left the company did so under a voluntary separation program, which they willingly applied for and were approved. They were neither ‘retrenched’ as stated in the headline, nor ‘given their walking papers’ as referenced in the article. Of the 29 employees who took the voluntary separation package – six were managers and 23 were support staff. The article’s claim of 30 executives being retrenched is both inaccurate and damaging to the individuals cited and to Ford Group Philippines.”

The issue is presently of much concern among us motoring journalists. But I find myself in no position to point any accusing finger to any of my peers. I would always give the benefit of the doubt to my brothers and sisters in the profession as to the accuracy of their sources. This is unless proven otherwise.

I just hope that with this I have done my small part of allowing those who feel aggrieved, find space for any rectification in this column.

Motoring Tip of the Week

Members of the Society of Philippine Motoring Journalists (SPMJ) have a yearly covenant to utilize whatever resources they have (print, radio, TV) to spread the word regarding the dangers of being drunk while driving especially during this season of parties and merrymaking.

Many have suffered the loss of their limbs, worse their lives because of drunk driving.

It has been said over and over again and yet we cannot overemphasize its importance – “If you must drink, be sure not to drive.”

From the start of the merrymaking have a designated driver to bring home all those who would drink. And make sure the designated driver does not drink at all.

Happy Motoring!!!

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