CEBU, Philippines – Seek an automotive technician who has passion for his craft. Someone who never grows tired of your questions and troubles. Somebody trained to be highly intolerant to errors.
Here’s a guy who, at seven years old, started tinkering on mechanical tools in his father’s auto shop. He could not make sense yet what the shop was totally all about, except that it is a routine across those childhood summers where volunteerism is the noblest of virtues.
Here’s a guy who, during his college years, began embracing races – drag – to rev up his passion for cars. Everything about cars. He has to understand: from the way every car is designed, to the way it should careen past most of what it was designed for.
Narciso “Sisoy” L. Cinco III would have been the next big thing in the electronics and communications engineering sector in Cebu having held various interesting job stints in major telco firms here. But “one can’t go against God’s plans – better plans,” he attested.
An Ilocano engineer in California, who went by the name of Manong Henry, opened a slot for auto mechanic, preferably to Filipino workers.
Sisoy said luck smiled on him – the opportunity came with a one-year scholarship worth US$15,000 in Pasadena. Come Board Exam time, he said, he nailed it with five mistakes only of 250 items. “The passion is there, the dedication is there, I then see myself – what I’m really meant to be doing,” he articulated.
His mentor, Manong Henry, is a retired aerospace engineer, one of the engineers who designed a fuel system for a Columbia mission to the moon. “Imagine the level of strict-ness, imagine the high intolerance to errors. There is no room for mistakes, if puwede pa lang they design things to be indestructible. That is his mindset,” Sisoy narrated.
“Under Manong Henry’s mentorship, I almost broke down in tears because – okay, I have my pride – I was already tempted to complain: Manong, ano bang ginagawa natin eroplano o kotse?”
Thereafter, I learned that I came to America to earn money but I missed the greater part – how can I earn money if I don’t have any skill? You have to fill your mind up before you can have money in your pocket. That was the big thing I had imbibed from him.
As a hobbyist, he has been into Lamborghinis, Ferraris; attuned to most concerns hounding Audis, BMWs, Toyotas, and other brands in the market. And he does serve at the comfort of his garage, mostly to friends who have trust issues with their car service centers.
A simple car problem, Sisoy said, can go worse like a wrongly diagnosed patient. Prescriptions can hurtle crazy and the patient suffers from metastasis of carcinogenic matters instead. It is pretty much the same with cars, there has to be executive checkup first. You check your engine, you check your brakes.
A lab test, sort of, with the help of computer software can easily assist Sisoy point out the trouble as precisely as ever. He doesn’t have to break down every nut and bolt in the vehicle to get to the nerve of it all. That is the joy of technology aside from his acquired skill in impressive car handling being an ASE Certified Automotive Technician, US-trained!
For example, client Mrs. Atuel, whose car is having a real hard time on the road lately, took it to the first troubleshooter. The car showed no improvement after, and even demonstrated more trouble with the way it is performing on the road. Taken then to a second troubleshooter to fix the mistake of the prior shooter, the trouble is like rust unattended to, it corrupts the entire contraption in time.
When Sisoy took on a diagnostic test, the problem simply involves a sensor. “It’s just a sensor. And what’s good about it is that I stored a compatible sensor three years old.”
“Imagine the double whammy on my part, having to shoot two troubles one on top of the other. That’s the core of this advocacy; that I could serve well even in the confines of my garage. I know people need more auto techs who can shoot it perfectly. Why go through the trouble of a second time if fixing your car can be done correctly the first time?”
Connect: 0917.721.3699 or 0923.717.6572. (FREEMAN)