PARADOX is Akio Toyoda. For, a grandson like Akio is not supposed to go up the ladder, to get to the top of the hill. It is almost a cycle—that grandchildren just do not reap the fruits from the toil of their granddaddies. But Akio did, defying conventions to be where he is now.
Toyoda became Toyota Motor Corp. top honcho by sheer hard work. Unlike most scions of wealthy families, Akio proved himself distinctly different from the old block. He rose amazingly to head the world’s No. 1 carmaker, which was founded by his grandfather.
It was in the 2015 Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo that I totally savored Akio’s brilliance. In his speech opening Toyota’s plush show at Tokyo’s massive Big Sight, Akio showed his willingness to venture out of the box when he used a baseball player as takeoff point to magnify his company’s thrust at achieving perfection and excellence. Baseball being an extremely calculating and a demanding sport, Akio called the baseball player up the stage to emphasize the need to inject individual talent to go side by side with fellow players’ separate skills and talents to attain team work, which is a key cog in the overall success of every endeavor. I learned a lot from that speech, indeed.
Akio showed his irreverence once more during the recent 30th anniversary of Toyota Motor Philippines when, after acknowledging that the Philippines has become the selfie capital of the world, he paused from his speech to take a group selfie shot himself, with President Duterte, TMP Vice Chairman Alfred Ty and TMP President Satoru Suzuki in the background, among others.
That scene will be etched in my mind forever.
Babes will be missed
THE thief of the night struck again. Zenaida Z. Gamboa—we affectionately called her Babes—appeared hale and hearty as always when, suddenly, she died. Heart attack. This was on Monday, August 13. Babes was the wife of Ray Butch “Elvis” Gamboa, the legendary founder-host of Motoring Today, the country’s longest-running TV show on the car industry. Our deepest condolences.
Babes was Elvis’s pillar of strength, electing always to be in the background but eternally doing her job quietly in the shadows in full support while her hubby was building a career.
Whenever Elvis hosted a party or dinner for his dear friends and allies, as well, Babes would always be there to prepare the dishes—unseen. She’d fill the table with lots and lots, from the not-so-common kind to the exotic that you rarely find in banquets.
The last big one Babes did was unforgettable.
In his usual unselfish way, Elvis hosted a party for the birthday celebrator, Danny “Sir John” Isla, only late last month. It was a feast like no other, meat galore, with the tokwa’t baboy hogging the spotlight. All done by Babes.
The party, as usual, was held in Elvis’s condo in Pasig.
“But Elvis, where’s my Comadre Babes?”
“She politely begged off, Sir Paul,” Elvis said.
“Why,” I said, a bit trying to sound like I was protesting.
“Well, she joked, ‘maglalasing lang naman kayo,’” Elvis said.
And so, the all-male (stag) party for Sir John lasted up to the small hours of the morning. While it was on, we couldn’t help but continuously praise, lavishly, Babes’s specialties from her kitchen. They went well—was it five dishes in all?—with the bottles in relative abundance killed that night.
Here’s another deathless proof of Babes’s love and affection for Elvis.
Having just undergone a heart procedure, Elvis had to forsake his once-a-week indulgence with prime rib steak.
Babes unleashed her own lovable blow to help Elvis wean away from his steak ways.
So, in one golf tournament that Elvis’s SunshineTV hosts yearly, Babes had the biggest surprise for the participants from the media, auto industry and friends of Motoring Today.
Babes dug out from the fridge Elvis’s precious-as-gold 12 kilos of expensive slabs of steak and had them raffled off during the awarding ceremonies.
It was the biggest hit of the tournament, drawing lusty cheers from a gallery salivating from the prime meat. While the applause was on, Babes was seated in one corner, enjoying the moment in her usual serene moment, like a placid river running deep nearby.
So, original was Babes’s innovation that the raffling of steaks has now become a yearly thing in Elvis’s golf event.
Thank you, Babes, for the love. Do not worry. We will continue to shower Elvis tirelessly, the way you took care of him with all your heart and mind. The Super Origs, for one, will forever be grateful to you. Enjoy your vacation.
PEE STOP While in Nagoya again recently, I discovered that there is a driver’s license there for stick-shift cars and another for the wanna-be automatic drivers.… The 18th Henry Ford Motoring Writing Awards is on. Deadline for submission of entries is on October 12…. My deepest condolences to the loved ones of Buloy Al Fernandez, the best mayor that Dagupan City has ever had. Cancer. He was 75. We call each other “buloy” because buloy means namesake in Pangasinense (I come from Mangatarem, Pangasinan, remember?). Buloy Al and I had shared laughs and many happy languid nights due mainly to spirits-filled drinking sprees. He was a man for all seasons, whose enduring dictum was, “Help if you can, for we live to help others in need.” We will miss you—terribly.