19th Bike Convention brings back old memories

Our special presentation on our talk show on Straight from the Sky, we bring you a serious talk about the coming May 2013 elections. With Atty. Jemy Gatdula and whether there is such a thing as a Catholic vote? Atty. Gatdula is a lawyer specializing in international economic law and the World Trade Organization (WTO) and an advocate of Natural Law. He lectures on international law and political thought at the University of Asia and the Pacific, Ateneo Law School and the University of the East College of Law.

Atty. Gatdula was a Bar examiner for Political Law and Public International Law for the Philippine Bar exams of 2009… and he has authored articles on his favorite topics on the law. He is also an opinion columnist for Business World. For this interview… I was told that he is staunchly Pro-Life and a member of the Ang Pro-Life Party-list that stands for good life, education for the young, healthcare for mothers, better retirement benefits for the elderly, better employment for Filipinos and he believes that good families make good citizens.

So it really is an honor to have Atty. Jemy Gatdula to be guest on our 2013 elections. So please watch this interesting personality on SkyCable’s channel 61 at 8:00pm tonight with replays on Wednesday and Saturday same time and channel. Straight from the Sky is also replayed on MyTV channel 30 on M-W-F.

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I just spent the weekend in Bacolod City to attend the 19th Annual Big Bike Convention hosted by the Thunderbugs Bacolod Motorcycle Club.  Our group, the Easy Riders Motorcycle Club left Cebu last Thursday afternoon and stayed overnight at the La Residencia in Dumaguete City. If you didn’t know, the Boulevard of Dumaguete just across our hotel is considered the largest outdoor Balutan restaurant in the Philippines.

Of course, all the motorcycle clubs in Cebu, the Star Group, Hero, Cruziers, Recycle, Redeemers and my old Big Bike Club, the Cycluns were also at the convention using different routes. If I failed to mention some motorcycle clubs, it is due to the fact that I didn’t meet any of the members of these big bike clubs. And there was a small bike club from Cebu as well.

We chose to ride to Dumaguete City as from Cebu to Bacolod, via the Dumaguete, Mabinay, Kabangkalan route would total 260 miles on my odometer, that is 418 kilometers. Yes it is indeed a long ride… more so that last Friday, from Mabinay to Kabangkalan, we got drenched in a very strong rain. While the ride was uneventful, a gruesome sight greeted us when we passed an accident area, where a young boy was lying in the middle of the road in his pool of blood… hit by vehicle near Pontevedra.

The 19th Annual Big Bike Convention coincidentally falls on the 50th anniversary of the Thunderbugs Bacolod Motorcycle Club, Inc. It got to reminisce that I too have been on the motorcycle saddle for 40-years already as I bought my very first motorcycle, a Honda XL-100 in 1973. I remember that the first motorcycle club I ever encountered in Cebu was called “Swapang”. I don’t know why they called it that… but my old friend Tony Cañales was a member and he later founded the Apaches. Eventually, we founded the Yamaha Philippines (YP) and later on the Cycluns Motorcycle Club. All the other motorcycle clubs are Johnny-come-lately’s.

Cebu then was a very quite town… so if anyone who owns a motorcycle would like to meet other bikers, all he had to do is go to Fuente Osmeña. It was there that bikers would meet. Notice I said bikers… not big bikers? That’s because we all started on smaller motorcycles. After my Honda, I changed it to a Yamaha 250cc two-stroke engine and a few months later, upgraded to a DT-360cc. Then I got my RD-350 from Renato Osmeña.

Back in those days, when bikers made standby in the “Big Oval”, we’d even race with each other around the Fuente Circle. At around 1:00am, when there are no vehicles passing by, we’d even race counterclockwise. Indeed, when you are young, restless and reckless…  and on a motorcycle, chances are… you think you’re invincible. I guess it is for this reason why we brought to Cebu the first Motocross races. These are the races that are still a huge crowd pleaser in many smaller towns and cities.

My apologies to our readers for this sentimental column. I guess it was triggered in Bacolod City, when my good friend, Philip Garcia of Thunderbugs called the first and second generation of big bikers on stage. It is also for this reason why Manolete Lamata is Chairman Emeritus of the Federation of Motorcycle Clubs in the Philippines and that 19-years ago, the first Big Bike convention was held in Bacolod City. What is significant for this year is that, it is also the 1st National Convention of the Small Motorcycle Clubs in the Philippines. This means, the future is assured for the big bike industry because as we said earlier, everyone upgrades to big bikes.

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