Motoring Today Column

Jul 18, 2018

It's not very often that I get an ardent request in this column for some space just to be able to have a semblance of an even playing field in a very controversial issue that involves a member of the local auto industry, which according to the involved party has been incessantly attacked in the court of public opinion, which is the media, instead of being presented in the proper forum where the said accused party could fully explain and defend its position.

The claiming aggrieved party believes that in being given some opportunity to air their side in a credibly neutral and objective venue like this column could help achieve that semblance of a level playing field considering how they are being minced daily in major media outlets.

In the spirit of balance and fair journalism, this column shall oblige the pleading to provide the venue to air the supposedly least heard side of the involved party. I shall go through this requested exercise'without', and may I repeat, 'without' taking any side of the issue. This column is presenting itself only as an impartial, independent, objective and unbiased venue.

The issue involves the purchase by the Philippine National Police (PNP) of two vehicle models, the Enforcer and the Scorpio, which are made by Mahindra & Mahindra, a reportedly $18 billion conglomerate in India with business in automotive, defense, aerospace, agriculture, financing, real estate and advanced technology, among others.

One of the models in question, the Enforcer is said to be presently one of the backbone vehicles of the immense Indian Army and widely used by the Sri Lankan, Nepalese and Bangladeshi police and armed forces. A quick research showed that the forerunner of the Enforcer is the American Motors Willy's Jeep, which was licensed to Mahindra & Mahindra for manufacturing after World War II. The Enforcer and the Scorpio are also reported to being exported to and extensively used by 39 other countries throughout the world.

Columbian Autocar Corporation (CAC), presents itself as the sole authorized official representative and dealer of Mahindra vehicles in the Philippines. They firmly maintain that the Enforcer has passed the rigid tests conducted by the PNP together with the evaluators from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) as part of the acceptance process prescribed in the bidding conditions.

In a statement, CAC reported that the tests conducted were rigorous where the vehicles were made to run for five (5) straight days without turning the engines off as they were made to pass through roads that were not concreted nor paved through mountainous areas of Benguet and the Mountain Province while crossing rivers and streams in the Ilocos Regions.

Auto industry icon and recognized most experienced management, manufacturing and marketing veteran, Mahindra Philippines President, Mr. Felix Mabilog stated in the midst of the controversy, "The allegation that the DBM/PNP bidding for the Patrol vehicles was rigged in CAC's favor is utterly contrary to the truth. Right from the start, the conditions prescribed in the bidding rules were designed to prevent us and other brands (Chinese) from joining the Tender. From the start of the bidding process; qualifications, vehicle specifications, post evaluation, prototype inspection/functional testing and the final 5-day field and endurance testing, everything was checked and counterchecked to justify our qualification or disqualification.

"In spite of everything, CAC won the bidding "fair and square" as one bidding official commented. We joined the Tenders knowing that our products can fully meet and satisfy the demanding requirements of our PNP and can give the most reasonable pricing for said vehicles owing the fact that we are on the distributor side.

"We earnestly joined the bidding to show what a newcomer but prestigious brand like Mahindra can offer to the Filipinos. With luck and the integrity and fairness of handling the bidding process by the members of the DBM/PNP Bids and Awards Committee (BAC), we won.

"So why are we being castigated for winning a legitimate and honestly conducted government procurement process?"

Regarding the allegation that the brand has not much of an after sales service to offer CAC says that they are maintaining regular maintenance records of the vehicles delivered to the country's police forces as they are brought to the authorized service centers for check ups and repairs.

They maintain that they have also established four regional spare parts depots in various locations in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao to ensure immediate availability of needed parts and support warranty demands. CAC also claims that if parts are not available on their regional stations, they are sent via airfreight within 24 hours from its central depot in Manila or by sea within one week. They added that CAC is maintaining more than P30 million worth of readily available spare parts for both Enforcer andScorpio models, which is equivalent to roughly 15 months carrying inventory.

On the issue of having a slew of inoperable Mahindra units CAC's statement says, "Of the 1,656 Enforcer Patrol Jeeps delivered to the PNP, only 25 are non-operational or 1.51%. The prevailing cause of bogged down units is mostly due to failure of the units being brought to authorized service centers for regular preventive maintenance check ups (13), road accidents (8) and damaged due to ambushes by criminal elements (4)."

In closing the statement CAC added, "It is noted that most of the problems of the PNP patrol jeeps were the failures of some police stations to bring vehicles for scheduled preventive maintenance services and those that were brought to and repaired in unauthorized service centers."

Again, this whole exercise of giving space to CAC to be able to answer and explain their side on the issue regarding how they were designated to supply the PNP with Mahindra vehicles and the questioned performance of the said vehicles is being done in the spirit of fair and balance journalism.

In this process this column has obliged to become a neutral venue for a discourse of the issue and is not taking any side of the controversy.

Happy Motoring!!!

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