MEDIUM RARE 

When Rose Zamora, mother of San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora, invited friends to join her at the launching of Dongfeng cars, would she have suspected that the greater incentive was to see President BBM in the flesh?

First of all, our group could not be sure if Dongfeng was a Korean or Chinese brand, and second, it’s been years, long “before the pandemic,” since we saw Marcos Jr. in person.

So off we went to Metrotent where, as it turned out, Chavit Singson is lord of the manor, tent and all. Not only that, as it turns out, his LCS Group is the national distributor of Dongfeng – not just cars but make that electric cars. There are only an elitist 8,800 electric cars moving around our good old roads, as confirmed by Art Apolinar of the Land Transportation Office in Cebu.

President BBM walked into the hall at 2 p.m. My impression of him: He looks exactly the same in person as the telegenic Marcos Jr. Some people look bad (or worse than their real selves) on TV, others are simply not comfortable in the glare of lights and cameras, but not BBM. He looks the same in flesh and blood as his on-screen likeness. 

His pitch for electric cars: They will decrease our dependency on fossil fuels as well as the emission of greenhouse gases. On Chavit’s part, he could not resist offering his support to jeepney drivers, some of whom were on strike that day to protest the phaseout of the “traditional” jeepney. He did not specify what form the support would take, but what better than a promise of discounts?

Dongfeng, made in China, had three models on display. A compact, at ₱888,000. A hybrid, ₱1.8 million. The real thing, fully electrified plus charger, ₱1.9 million. Among the guests present was Juanita Chua, who said she’s an out-of-town dealer. Ping Valencia, who drives an SUV, wanted to know if Chavit would allow a test drive: “That’s the only way to check out the suspension.” Rose Z was curious if Dongfeng had a model large enough to serve on medical missions.

I would’ve asked PBBM if he would be switching soon to an electric limo with plate No. 1.