s father did love to go to the races—HORSE RACES. The most prestigious trophy in Philippine thoroughbred horse racing from 1972 to until about 1985 was the annual Presidential Gold Cup that used to be hosted by the Manila Jockey Club (MJC) and held at the San Lazaro Hippodrome in Santa Cruz, Manila. It's not there anymore, replaced by SM-Felix Huertas.
Marcos prided himself with levelling his country up there with rest of the world and so the Presidential Gold Cup" was touted to be the Philippine version of the classic Kentucky Derby. Organized especially by the Philippine Racing Commission (PHILRACOM) to suck up to President Ferdinand E. Marcos, it was rumored he even owned the first horse that won it, aptly named “Ilocos King.”
But President Bongbong Marcos, Jr.’s father never went to car races. He certainly never went to a Formula One circuit as a live spectator. Neither was he a car enthusiast. People find it unusual that for all the Fort Knox-ish wealth of the former dictator, he didn’t own any “super cars” the way Middle Eastern Arab sheiks filled their garages with Porsches, Ferraris, Bugattis and McLarens.
But he had lofty ambitions for the Philippine automotive industry—and most especially for himself USING the automotive industry. All throughout the 1970s, he pushed local dealerships who were then importing completely built units (CBU’s) to shift to importing completely “knocked-down parts” (KDP) instead.
The idea was to bring in unassembled components and then assemble them here in the Philippines—not necessarily according to their original design. So while there were only one or two new models for each carmaker, you could find 3 or 4 variants of them here in the Philippines. Most of the time, they were street legal only in the Philippines, too.
To give credit where it is due, though, the Philippines was the inventor of a new class of functional machines called “Asian Utility Vehicles” (AUV’s), a category that still survives to this day.
It was the Philippines that produced the legendary Ford Fiera that even Ford engineers in Detroit couldn’t recognize. Similarly, Japanese engineers couldn’t remember designing the “Toyota Tamaraw” but at P12,000 apiece for a brand-new unit, it was outselling the Ford Fiera which retailed for P14,000. This was around 1974. Isuzu designers were scratching their heads wondering who of them greenlighted that ugly boxy Isuzu KC-20.
All of these were martial law era “cars” designed by “Filipino ingenuity,” Marcos bragged. They were ugly but sturdy. They won’t win many races but they’ll run FOREVER and they did! You can still see many of them on the road today.
The truth is, they were products of the Filipino’s propensity to steal intellectual property and violate patents, with the tacit approval and support of Malacañan. Marcos wanted to achieve “highly-industrialized” status for the Philippines by any convenient shortcut. If the Philippines could produce the “first Filipino car” the following day, he would be most pleased.
In fact, a local assembler Domingo Guevara was decades ahead of him. Owner of DM Guevara Motors which was the Philippine distributor of Volkswagen, he got some gauge 12 flat metal sheets, cut and folded them this way and that, and came up with the first “Filipino” car called “Sakbayan”--supposedly short for “sasakyan ng bayan.” Then he produced a larger beefier pickup version called the “Trakbayan” which was short for—ah, you get the idea.
The “Sakbayan” and “Trakbayan” were modest successes—maybe even less—because Guevara tried to remain “chill” about them. He knew that, in the same “original” tradition of the Ford Fiera and Toyota Tamaraw his creations were less than original inventions.
In fact, he left clues all over the place. He was exclusive dealer of Vokswagen, which is German for “people’s car,” which is the English translation of “Sasakyan ng Bayan.”
So, in reality, the Sakbayan was just a boxy version of the lovable little rave car of the 70’s—Walt Disney’s “Herbie, the Love Bug”—with a rear-mounted air-cooled 1300 cc engine stolen from a Volkswagen Beetle.
The Trakbayan was just a half-hearted work of metal origami with (again) a rear-mounted air-cooled 1600 CC engine stolen from the Volkswagen Kombi.
The “bayan” suffix was, however, Guevara’s original coinage. Unfortunately, it resonated too much with Marcos’ ultranationalist “pang-masa” theme. Marcos used the suffix for all his programs: Palayan ng Bayan, Gulayan ng Bayan, Bigasan ng Bayan, Bangko ng Bayan, Pagamutan ng Bayan, ad nauseaum.
Marcos was excited about Sakbayan and Trakbayan—if only they could be the technological signature icons of martial law. It was his dream come true! And it made the news headlines—primarily because all newspapers were state controlled back then. But he wanted the glory for himself, not for it to go to Guevara.
So he sent his emissaries to Guevara offering to “buy” his company but when Domingo Guevara quoted a price he was told, “No, you don’t understand. We just want to buy your company but we don’t want to PAY for it!”
In other words, these men from the Palace rock garden were there to exemplify the flagship program of the martial law regime--"PEACE AND ORDER."
"Hey, the Apo wants a PIECE of that and he said that's an ORDER!"
Guevara was actually a member of the 1971 Constitutional Convention and was one of the seven delegates who voted against the draft 1973 Marcos Constitution.
Being one of the first non-crony industrialists who resisted the dictatorship, Guevara refused to part with his Sakbayan and Trakbayan projects. That’s when Volkswagen Philippines and all his other companies—the most stellar of which was Radiowealth, maker of Filipino-designed and built radio and television sets--started getting the “friendliest” treatment from the BIR, the Bureau of Customs, and other agencies that he had to deal with.
Long story short, now you understand why Volkswagen disappeared from the Philippine market. And also Radiowealth TV’s.
When President Bongbong Marcos Jr., was reported to have flown to Singapore to watch a Formula One race, he was roundly denounced for being insensitive to the suffering of Filipinos just recenty ravaged by calamity back home.
So now-resigned Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles lost no time explaining that Junior went to Singapore to woo investors to the Philippines.
At a car race?
Oh, no, I thought. We’re gonna build a “Filipino car” again!*
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