Our way of saying "Thank you"

Tomorrow, Thursday, April 7, SPMJ or the Society of Philippine Motoring Journalists shall continue its tradition of getting together the movers and shakers of the Philippine automotive industry for a day of competition, not to get the automobile buyers’ nod but for a friendly day of drives, pitches and putts – the SPMJ Invitational Golf Cup.

For those who may not know, SPMJ is an organization of motoring editors, motoring TV program producers and hosts together with broadcast and print journalists whose interest center on motoring, motor sports and the motoring industry. Aside from the passion for professionalism in their profession, which they all share, they also have a common dream that someday our country would have order in our streets and with less accidents – a nation of safe and responsible road users.

Years of writing about the shared advocacy to promote road safety without much effect on the populace made the group decide to take on a more dynamic stance and proactive approach. Realizing that the present culture of road users cannot be changed overnight, the group decided to bring the message directly to those who would most likely benefit in the long term – our country’s youth.

The decision was further rationalized and strengthened when the World Heath Organization drew attention to an alarming fact – “road accidents are expected to be in the top three major causes of injury and death, slowly climbing up behind disease and the most vulnerable member of society to road accidents is the youth.”

Thus, SPMJ’s advocacy of educating the youth about road safety and the responsible use of the roads was born.

Having no professional educators among its ranks, SPMJ thought of working on the teachers for them to effectively teach their students about road safety. And to do this right there was a need to provide the teachers the required professionally-designed and prepared teaching modules or what’s more commonly known as lesson plans.

Great plans, but who’s going to fund the project as the teaching modules would cost a fortune?

That was how the SPMJ Invitational Golf Cup was conceived. A fund-raising golf tournament among one of the major groups of stakeholders in the universal concern for road safety – the country’s automotive manufacturers, importers and distributors.

When the idea was broached to friends in the industry, it was met with overwhelming approval simply because an attempt to have a similar industry event was then more than a decade ago and was never repeated. And a day of friendly golf competition among fiercely competing industry players would always be a welcome respite.

It was in 2004 at the Riviera Golf & Country Club that the fund-raising event was first successfully held. It was immediately followed the next year, in 2005 and also in the same venue and with equal, if not surpassing success.

It was time for SPMJ to work the next year as the National Center for Transport Studies (NCTS) of the University of the Philippines was commissioned to prepare the teaching modules for elementary and high school students.

After the completion of the teaching modules, the 3rd staging of the SPMJ Invitational Golf Cup was held at the Santa Elena Golf & Country Club in 2007.

SPMJ was able to conduct workshops for teachers and sample teach-ins for students in 25 schools in Metro Manila and adjoining provinces. This was also achieved with the further help of direct sponsorships of Toyota Motor Philippines under the presidency of Mr. Nobuharu Tabata and Ford Group Philippines then headed by Mr. Henry Co.

The workshops, which were aptly named by then SPMJ Executive Director and Seminar Head Quito Da Roza as “Early Warning”, were conducted free, complete with give aways and snacks.

It was in 2008 that SPMJ felt that it was pay back time for those who somehow helped in the organization’s advocacy, either by sponsorships or just by participating in the fund-raising tournaments. So the “all free” 4th SPMJ Invitational Golf Cup was held at the Intramuros Golf Club. Again it was a rousing success.

This is the 5th staging and it’s still our way of further saying “thank you” for the unconditional support from the auto industry that the group has been enjoying. Fourteen teams representing the country’s various automobile manufacturers, importers and distributors are vying for the prestigious trophy courtesy of AGC Philippines, which would be kept permanently by the team who can register three championships. As of now the Toyota Team has won it twice in the 1st and 2nd (2004 and 2005) staging while the BMW Team similarly with two championships in 2007 and 2008.

Top industry executives are expected to play tomorrow including, Michinobu Sugata, president of Toyota Motor Philippines, Ryozi Yamazaki, president of Isuzu Philippines Corporation, Danny “Sir John” Isla, president of Lexus Manila, Benedicto Coyiuto president of Audi Philippines, to name some.

The participating teams in this year’s tournament include: ACC-BMW, CATS Motors-Mercedes-Benz, Chevrolet, Hyundai, Isuzu, Kia, Lexus, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, PGA Cars, Toyota, UMC-Nissan and Volvo.

Members of the participating teams have the option to stay over Wednesday night at the Fontana Villas so they can tee-off fresh with plenty of sleep, at least those who would not join the “all in” session, which would undoubtedly be initiated by Danny “SJ” Isla and with PGA’s Nick Lagmay definitely seconding the motion not to mention Jeff Reyes of The Philippine STAR for a third.

The 5th SPMJ Invitational Golf Cup Tournament, which is presented by the Fontana Hot Spring Leisure Parks, shall be held at the Fontana and Apollon Korea Country Club at the Clark Freeport Zone.

The Society of Philippine Motoring Journalists has as members, your columnist, motoring editor of the Manila Bulletin, Pinky Colmenares; Auto Review TV show producer/host Ron delos Reyes; Philippine STAR motoring editor Dong Magsajo; Manila Times motoring editor Brian Afuang; Top Gear editor Vernon Sarne; Sunshine TV vice president for production Jenny Bleza; Manila Bulletin motoring asst. editor Anjo Perez; Manila Bulletin desk editor Erle Sebastian and Auto Extreme TV show producer/host Ardie Lopez.

Happy Motoring!!!

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