Motoring Today Column: A Winning Industry

Dec 21, 2022

A Winning Industry

It's that time of the year when Sunshine Television (STV) holds the awarding ceremonies for the Auto Focus People's and Media's Choice Awards.

We must say it's an annual event that is now much awaited and anticipated by our audience, car enthusiasts and the industry.

These awards was started way back in 2008, aiming to recognize the automobile industry's sustained efforts to provide car owners and motorists with the best on-board features, styling, performance and overall value.

It also provides the industry much feedback about how the motorists and car owners perceive these efforts. In this way, we believe the awards has helped bring together both automotive industry and their target market - the car owners and users of their products.

The 2022-23 Auto Focus People's and Media's Choice Awards may well be said to be special as the industry and the economy, and indeed public and the nation itself are back to enjoying a more normal life.

At last year's awarding ceremonies, we have had reason to be optimistic about the industry's outlook.

We must say that as 2022 has turned out, all our measured expectations have been happily exceeded.

New players entering the market; new model launches left, right and center; new hybrids, even full electrics, being introduced.

And we're seeing sales figures we last saw in 2019 before the challenges of Covid hit the country full force.

We are very happy to see that industry players, old and new, have been quite busy this year, much also to the delight of their clientele.

This certainly augurs well for the industry in 2023.

As the many entries and winners at this year's awards attest, the industry has certainly survived the global contagion and are now thriving.

We see no reason why this uplift will wane in 2023.

We certainly like to congratulate all winners in both categories.

We'd also like to express our appreciation to all the representatives of the various manufacturers and distributors, as well as the esteemed members of the motoring media, who participated in this year's edition of the Auto Focus People's and Media's Choice Awards.

We also like to acknowledge the continued involvement of Stradcom in providing us car registration aka unit sales data in regular and timely fashion over the years.

The data has been key to developing the unique scoring system we use for the AFPCA. Thank you again to Arnold Carlos and his people at Stradcom.

And the winners of the Auto Focus People's Choice Awards are:

─ Toyota Vios, Standard Automobile Of The Year/ Standard Sedan of the Year

─ BMW 3 Series, Luxury Automobile Of The Year/ Luxury Sedan of the Year

─ Ford Mustang Gt, Standard Sports Car of the Year

─ Ford Mustang Shelby GT500, Premium Luxury Sports Car of the Year

─ Toyota Fortuner, Standard SUV/Crossover of the Year

─ Nissan Patrol, Luxury SUV/Crossover of the Year

─ Toyota Innova, Standard Van/MPV of the Year

─ Mercedes Benz V-Class, Luxury Van/MPV of the Year

─ Toyota Hilux, Standard Pickup of the Year

Hands On Secretary

Congratulations again to all the winners of thePeople Choice Awards and to the winners in the Media Choice Awards, which we can't mention in this space for they are many.

Also deserving of commendation is Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Jaime Bautista .

Bautista is making it a habit to personally experience what the masses go through in their daily commute, which is truly a good thing.

The DOTr is pushing towards cashless transaction in an effort to provide Filipino commuters with safe, affordable, comfortable, and accessible public transport.

And in doing so, Bautista went out of his way to check the efficiency of the cashless ticketing system.

A press statement said, Bautista personally tried the use of TRIPKO card, a form of cashless payment in public transportation, as he rode a bus unit at the One Ayala Terminal in Makati City.

The use of TRIPKO card is in line with the implementation of theAutomated Fare Collection System (AFCS) in relation to the Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP) of the DOTr, according to the press statement.

To get free TRIPKO card, passengers need to load an initial amount of P100 and the whole amount will be credited upon registration.

A booth has been set up at the One Ayala Terminal in Makati City for this.

TRIPKO card can be used as payment in riding a public utility bus and modernized jeepneys. The card needs to be reloaded for continued use.

The DOTr said that to date, around 1.5 million free TRIPKO cards have distributed to the riding public in various bus and jeepney routes in Manila, Batangas, Sta. Rosa in Laguna, Alabang, Parañaque Integrated Terminal Exchange (PITX), Lawton, Cebu, Tacloban, and Davao, among others.

Happy Motoring!!!

For comments & inquiries:

(email) sunshine.television@yahoo.com

(website) www.motoringtoday.ph

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ray Butch Gamboa graduated from the College of Arts and Letters of the University of Sto. Tomas. It was a course that should have been preparatory to a law degree, but the call of broadcasting aborted his plans.

At the age of 16, while still a student, Butch tried his hand at disc jockeying, landing a job at Mareco Broadcasting Network’s AM stations DZBM and DZLM. From there, Butch moved on with his illustrious career as a popular disc jockey, riding the airwaves of Bob Stewart’s middle-of-the-road music at DZXX, and ending his disc jockeying career at ABS-CBN’s DZYL and DZQL.

From there, he stayed on with ABS-CBN, covering live the proceedings at the Manila Stock Exchange and eventually entered into the world of television sales as an account manager for the premier channel of ABS-CBN Channel 2.

In the early 70’s, at the outbreak of Martial Law, Butch was one of the thousands of professionals who woke up jobless when then President Marcos declared the new status of the nation. With the closure of ABS-CBN, Butch ventured into different fields outside of broadcast. He tried his hand and with ease and success at export (Costume jewelry), real estate (brokerage), and restaurants (fast food).

In 1987, after the revolution, with the broadcast industry back to its free state, and with its irresistible call ringing in his ears, Butch made his inevitable comeback and pioneered in a local motoring show, producing Motoring Today on Channel 4 and co-hosting with local motor sports’ living legend Pocholo Ramirez.

After 4 years, he ventured into another pioneering format by producing and hosting Business & Leisure, which was originally aired on ABS-CBN’s Channel 2. The format eventually espoused similar ones in other different channels. But the clones in due course faded away leaving the original staying on airing on Channel 4 and eventually on Shop TV on Sky Cable’s Channel 13.

The following year, the pioneering spirit in Butch spurred him to produce another TV show, Race Weekend, also on Channel 4, covering circuit racing at the Subic International Raceway after the motor sport’s hiatus of 17 years. But when similar shows with duplicated formats sprouted, he decided to give way and ended the program after a year, although still enjoying unparalleled viewership.

In 1998, when the local automotive industry was in a slump, Butch contributed his share to help the ailing industry by producing another popular motoring-related show, this time exclusive to the automobile and its industry—Auto Focus, which became a vehicle for local automotive assemblers and importers to showcase their products and dwell on the industry’s latest technological developments.

In 2003, Butch teamed up with his brother, Rey Gamboa who was a former Shell executive and presently one Philippine Star’s business columnist to co-produce and co-host the TV show Breaking Barriers on Channel 13. It is a talk show that features guests who are in the news and in the middle of controversies. The program ventures to draw deeper insights into current issues to learn how they impact to our daily lives.

Today, Motoring Today on its 28th year of service to the general motoring public still enjoys its unprecedented loyal vierwership nationwide while Auto Focus, after 16 years has firmly established its niche viewership among automobile enthusiasts and on the other hand Business & Leisure is on its 24th year dishing out current business issues and lifestyle features.

Today, aside from writing weekly columns for the Philippine Star (Motoring Today on Wednesdays and Business & Leisure on Saturdays) and executive producer / host of weekly TV shows (Motoring Today, airs Sundays on Solar Sports Channel 70, Business & Leisure, airs Tuesdays on Shop TV, Sky Cable Channel 13 and Auto Focus airs Thursdays on Shop TV, Sky Cable Channel 13, Ray Butch Gamboa is currently the Chairman and CEO of Sunshine Television Production and Marketing Services Corp., President of Gamcor Management and Development Corp., Chairman of Asia-Pacific Realty Corporation, President and Chairman of Socio-Communication Foundation for Asia and Founding Chairman of the Society of Phil. Motoring Journalists (SPMJ)