Fighting words

[s10pao]

Fighting words - All Will Drive | TopGear.com.ph

Fighting words
By Vernon B. Sarne — 19 Oct 2012

Felix J. Mabilog Jr., the 73-year-old president of Eurobrands Distributor Inc. (Peugeot), cuts a somewhat menacing figure in the industry. Most likely the oldest active executive in the business right now--assuming there's no octogenarian being wheeled around some automotive manufacturing facility in Laguna as I write this--Mabilog has spent decades of his life mastering the art of assembling and selling cars, most notably those from Volkswagen, Mitsubishi and Kia. Apparently, he has also mastered the art of terrorizing his employees with a management style that some swear already borders on workplace bullying.

Staff members tell stories of verbal abuse, the kind that could land a corporate boss in jail if he were in the United States. But the same workers narrate these stories with a fondness that makes you wonder if they haven't already developed a masochistic predilection for profanity. Oddly, they sound as though they might be referring to a surly grandfather, not a company president who makes them quake in their Nikes before every meeting.

And that is perhaps a rare skill that Mabilog has perfected to his advantage: He is able to mercilessly cut somebody down to size and that somebody will later share the experience with his colleagues while grinning from ear to ear--like he has just been handed a badge of honor by his foul-tempered superior.

FJM (a moniker his underlings prefer to address him by) possesses a Visayan accent so thick you could carve a rubber tire out of it. When you hear him give a speech for the first time, you can be forgiven for wanting to chuckle. But it's probably this crooked diction--this unpretentious manner of speaking--that endears the source of the words to his listeners, even if those words lacerate the latter's self-esteem.

Mabilog takes great pride in his articulation and won't bother to correct mispronounced terms. If he mangles your name beyond recognition, it's best for you to just sit there and suck it all up. Because by his third oral gaffe, you're no longer offended--you're just amused. Suddenly, you find yourself feeling at home with a warm fuzziness you only previously felt in the presence of your lolo.

That's a gift, the ability to freely utter whatever one feels like uttering without causing a scandal or inviting a lawsuit.

Tasked to give the opening remarks at a press conference his company held this week, Mabilog proudly told his media audience that he had in his pocket a three-page speech which his marketing and communications director had painstakingly prepared for him. He said the speech had been a tedious process that involved securing the French stamp of approval from Peugeot's head office. And even at the last minute, he said, the copy still bore a number of corrections. With that revelation, anyone would be right to assume that the speaker was left with no choice but to treat the speech like a sacred manuscript, and to read from it with all the solemnness a Catholic bishop could muster.

Felix J. Mabilog Jr. did none of that.

Instead, he spoke from the heart and from his surprisingly excellent memory. He peppered his monologue with effective jokes; he called out specific individuals from the crowd presumably for some intimacy; he recited numbers and figures from the very speech he had just tossed aside. This man made one thing clear that day: Nobody gets to put words in his mouth. He would do the talking and he wouldn't care how his words hurtled across the room.

The unrehearsed elocution--if it could in fact qualify as elocution--was lengthy, particularly for a noontime schedule that would normally make journalists impatiently glance at their watches, the nonstop ticking of which would remind them of the stories to file and the deadlines to beat. But they didn't seem to notice. Mabilog the orator was regaling them with his tall tales and thick Visayan accent. In return, they appreciated a speaker who was, for a change, as candid and spontaneous as someone doing his thing in the shower. It was refreshing. So much so that when it was the turn of Peugeot's French officer to take the podium, all he could say was: "How do you give a speech after that?"

But FJM wasn't done yet. He brilliantly saved his declamatory best for last.

During the requisite Q&A session, one of my colleagues asked the panel what they thought of the biggest and most enduring challenge facing the Philippine car industry: the smuggling of secondhand cars into the country. This is where it got really interesting, thanks to the one-man show that was Felix J. Mabilog Jr.

At first, Mabilog rattled off the usual facts and figures. Like how the Philippines had started assembling cars way before Thailand and Malaysia did, and how those two countries had now overtaken us in terms of market size. Like how in one specific year, the number of "new vehicles" registered with the LTO far exceeded the actual number of brand-new units that the formal car industry had sold. Like how the unlawful importation of used cars was seriously harming the legitimate automotive business. Nothing new there.

What sounded new to me was Mabilog's concluding pronouncement.

He said: "We all know that the former First Family benefited from the illegal car-smuggling. And now, the current administration is saying that honesty is its policy. That's good. But why can't they do anything about the car-smuggling in Cagayan? Are they afraid of Mr. Enrile?"

To be clear, what he said is nothing new either. We've all heard it before, whispered quietly in the halls of commerce and typed vigorously in the anonymity of online forums. What is new here is a high-ranking industry executive willing to go on record to denounce what he perceives to be detrimental to an industry that generates jobs and pays proper taxes (for the most part, at least).

"I don't care if they throw me in jail," he said. "At my age, I don't care anymore."

It initially struck me as mere bravado, coming from a man notorious for spewing out fire and brimstone. I half-expected the precautionary phrase "off the record" to trail the courageous remarks. It never came.

Felix J. Mabilog Jr. will most certainly leave behind a legacy of forthrightness, never mind if it so often veered toward the extreme. But if there's one thing I will someday remember him for, it's that he was the only industry executive not afraid to name names--to stop beating around the blighted bush and start uprooting it. When many of his fellow industry captains are content--and indeed already comfortable--to just turn a blind eye to the corruption around them, here is the elderly Mabilog putting to good use his trademark brand of diatribe.

Love or hate the man for his scathing words, but at least admire him for having the balls to never take them back.

[Ry_Tower]

Fighting words - All Will Drive | TopGear.com.ph

The man did talk the talk and walk the walk with that unspoken truth.

[niky]

Sounds like Vernon's kind of guy. Someone else who doesn't care if lightning will strike him down... he's just got to say the truth.

Everybody knows it. No one has the guts to come out in the open and pose the challenge to the Government about it.