Motoring Today Column

Mar 14, 2018

No, it's not all just about business

It has been a little over a year since the local automotive industry had the spotlight trained on it for reasons other than registering phenomenal record sales of vehicles or for a spectacular new vehicle offering that may take the country by storm.

The Society of Philippine Motoring Journalists or SPMJ, a group of editors, publishers, TV producers and hosts, online practitioners, writers, reporters-all journalists that are engaged in the motoring and automotive beat once again took the initiative to recognize and put into fore the good deeds of the members of the motoring industry all geared toward the upliftment of the lives of our countrymen in varied ways and fields like education and training,road safety, community development and environment.

The Driven to Serve Awards aims to inspire the entire automotive industry to engage further in these Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects-make those that are already currently deeply involved to do better and those that aren't yet to get started.

The idea to give ample credit where credit is duly due came about when this group of closely-knit motoring journalists started realizing that many of the CSR activities of auto industry members that they have been invited to have mostly gone unpublished and unheralded and to the indifference of the industry.

For so many years varied laudable efforts geared toward nation building and the improvement of the lives of our countrymen have been engaged in by many of the country's car manufacturers and importers. Many of these initiatives are selfless and don't even have any relevance to the marketing and sales of their products and done without fanfare.

SPMJ thought that it's about time that the country gets to know that this business sector is not just about business, so therefore the annualDriven To Serve Awards of the Society of Philippine Motoring Journalists.

The very intimate 2^nd Driven To Serve Awards recognition night was held at the Yuchengco Museum inAyala Avenue, Makati City last Wednesday, March 7.

The members of SPMJ would like to express their heartfelt appreciation to Mr. Rod Franco, president of NLEX Corp. who again demonstrated his firm belief in this recognition and awarding of outstanding CSR projects of the local auto industry for the second straight year.

The 2^nd 'Driven To Serve Awards' was presented in cooperation with NLEX Corporation with the participation of Petron Corporation,Clorox International Company and Vista Residences.

Congratulations to all the awardees.

Happy Motoring!!!

For comments & inquiries (email) sunshine.television@yahoo.com

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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)