Our very memorable Petron Mabuhay Independence Rally, with the support of the Cavite Provincial Government headed by Governor Boying Remulla, was a big success especially for the participating teams that got to see a lot of the historic sites for the first time in their lives!

We have listed the winners in another article in this motor sports section and congratulations again to the Reyes family for taking the win for Overall and Family divisions plus leading the MINI Team for the Team award, too! The new Bayud Resort Siargao team of Remi Barbers, Carlos & Igo Loinaz took the Novice class and the Masters by the Janferds Balois’ team.

Here are the juicy inside stories that only the participants and organizers share together after doing our 1st year anniversary Mabuhay Rally.

Cavite support

Taking a cue from our successful Rizal Day rally last January, we wanted to show how we won our independence from our foreign conquerors. After a short review of our history, we found that the first battle for independence happened in Cavite and a lot of our heroes came from the province. Therefore, it was a hands dow choice to have Cavite as our place for the Mabuhay Independence Rally.

We were fortunate to get in touch with my college friend and now Governor of Cavite, Boying Remulla, and he loved the idea of our amazing race/auto fun run rally, especially since it was geared for the family and historical significance. We initially set the date on June 12 and the Governor told us the best historical spots that where in the province.

History lesson

The Museo ni Emilio Aguinaldo in Kawit will be one of the main stops as it was the place where our Independence from the Spaniards was declared. The monuments of the Battle of Binakayan, Battle of Imus, 13 Martyrs in Trece Martires City, and the various monuments in the towns were included. These monuments showed the first battles of our early Filipino heroes and showed how strong and courageous they were to fight against the well-equipped oppressors.

The Casa Hacienda de Tejero (Tejeros Convention) in Rosario, the Museo ng Paglilitis ni Bonifacio and the Bonifacio Shrine in Maragondon showed the dark side of politics and the early revolution.

The father and acknowledged leader, Andres Bonifacio, was supposed to be our first president but was voted out by Aguinaldo’s group, then tried for treason, was imprisoned and killed by Filipino fighters. The Bonifacio shrine, erected in 2010, was where he was shot in the hinterlands of Maragondon. This will be a fitting tribute to our hero, as we wanted to bring this out in the open and learn from our past.

One of the late additions to the route was the privately owned GBR Museum in General Trias. This fantastic museum has one of the best collections of our revolutionary and historical pictures on display. Created by the philanthropist and founder Geronimo Berenguer De Los Reyes Jr, his grandfather was silently involved in funding the Filipino revolution and had the 3 Masons monument in the museum to commemorate the silent heroes. This is definitely a place worth visiting and we made it our rally finish.

Mother Nature’s fury

It isn’t easy to organize Time Speed Distance rallies and this Mabuhay Rally was no exception! With the event originally scheduled to be ran during our Independence Day holiday, we had to postpone it due to the monsoon rains that came down hard and kept going for almost 2 weeks.

The night before the rally, it poured again and we thought that we might have to postpone the rally again. Luckily, the morning of the rally was cloudy but dry. It remained that way until we finished at the GBR Museum in the afternoon.

Good timing

The postponement of the event though, had a good effect on the rally; the venues were not busy and the Governor was now free from his official independence duties and could join us before he left for a trip abroad.

This made a major rerouting of the event and gave us 2 sleepless nights to have the rally start in the new Petron Manila Bay station and meet the Governor in the Aguinaldo Shrine in the morning. It was really worth the effort as everything gelled together especially the sites were now passed according to their geographical locations plus we had a good trivia contest in Kawit’s Museo ni Emilio Aguinaldo.

What we could not anticipate was the impassable dirt road leading Bonifacio Shrine in Maragondon. After incessant rains the night before, we had to cancel the stage leading there and that started a series of problems.

Mini-Reyes team rules Petron Mabuhay Rally

The defending champions of the Petron Time Speed Distance Championship, the Reyes family, crushed the competition in the recent Petron Mabuhay Independence Rally to top the Individual and Family divisions. They also pushed the Mini Team to first overall in the team standings.

The Reyes Team composed of patriarch Ray Reyes and children Denise, Paula, and Justin drove a Mini Cooper and were partnered with Stuart Samson, Alexis Angeles, and Charles Mondragon in the other Mini entry that took second place.

The Petron Mabuhay Independence Rally, a brainchild of MP Turbo, was staged in Cavite and was supported by Gov. Boying Remulla and the Cavite Provincial Tourism Office.

The Mabuhay Independence Rally went around the historic sites of Cavite like the Museo ni Emilio Aguinaldo in Kawit, the monuments of the Battle of Binakayan, Battle of Imus Marker, 13 Martyrs in Trece Martires City, the Casa Hacienda de Tejeros (Tejeros Convention), the Museo ng Paglilitis ni Bonifacio in Maragondon, and the GBR Museum in General Trias.

The Bonifacio Shrine in Maragondon was not passable after incessant rains and had to be scrapped from the event. The rally also featured a lot of trivia contests similar to the Amazing Race and there were stops at the Museo ni Emilio Aguinaldo, where Governor Boying Remulla met the participants and flagged them off. The GBR Museum was the final stop and finish of the rally.

The best novice crew was first timers of the Bayud Resort Team Siargao composed of Remi Barbers, and Carlos and Igo Loinaz. They finished fourth overall and were the surprise of the rally. The Tuason family members of mother Jackie, and sons Andrew and Joao came in second in the novice division and third were Team Ribbon ARC’s Elysse Menorca, Quattro Adriano, Kim Jigger Chong, and Gabriel Señires.

A perfect 1-2 finish for the Mini cars showed how tight the competition was between the two teams. Samson’s team was leading the rally in overall time demerits but they were beaten by the Reyes team when the trivia contests and DIY picture bonuses were handed out. The Reyeses even took a perfect zero demerits in the road book trivia and ended with an overall score of 266 demerits. Team Samson got 502 demerits for second place.

Settling for third overall were Go Flat Out’s Janferds Balois, Jerald Valdez, and Boy Eusebio with 1,037 demerits. They helped Go Flat Out to take second in th e Team division with James Tagle and Nikki Briones coming in at seventh overall in the Individual category. The third team awardee was the Kia Team of father and son Raul and Benjie Tuason with Kyra Baricaua that finished in sixth overall. Kia team-mates Bong Africa, Jon Francisco, and Jahan Kalam finished 11th.

The official sponsors of the Petron Mabuhay Independence Rally were Mini Philippines, Kia Philip-pines, Uni Writing Instruments, South Asialink Finance Corp., Motolite, Ziebart, Autohub Car Care Ser-vices, Fast Aid and Foton. Media partners are The Manila Times, C! Magazine, Targa Philippines, and Time Attack. (Mike Potenciano)