Celebrating quality excellence

It’s not a smooth ride, this journey toward recovery even for a mammoth automotive company like Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. (TMP).

But the company is facing the new year with hope and optimism, says its chairman Alfred V. “AVT” Ty.

“In 2022, we are hopeful and optimistic that the economy will recover above the six percent GDP level not only because of the election season, but also the overall improvement of the economy worldwide,” AVT said in a recent gathering with business and motoring journalists held at the now festive Grand Hyatt Manila.

Around the same time last year, AVT had noted the COVID-19 situation was becoming more or less contained until headwinds came in the form of a provisional safeguard duty on imported passenger cars and light commercial vehicles. This year, a new round of prolonged lockdowns because of the Delta variant also affected the momentum toward recovery, he said.

On top of this, TMP was also not spared from the impact of the global shortage of semiconductor chips due to COVID-19-related work stoppage, leading to an erratic supply of some models.

But there’s reason to be hopeful that things will improve in 2022, especially with the global economic recovery.

“We would like to believe that we will go back to pre-pandemic levels as financial institutions begin to open up their facilities for auto loans,” AVT said.

On the sidelines, I joked that he can easily convince his elder brother Metrobank chairman Arthur Ty to make sure that happens. With some self-deprecating humor, AVT jested back, saying that will not be easy.

Seriously though, bank lending, which had been mostly muted since last year, is now slowly recovering with a 1.3 percent growth in August, ending eight straight months of contraction as the central bank’s aggressive easing is now being absorbed by the economy.

Despite the challenges, there’s a lot to celebrate for TMP as the company managed not only to adapt and respond to the changing times, but to thrive as well; much like its vehicles.

It managed to bring back this year the Toyota Gazoo Racing Vios Cup after an inevitable break in 2020.

But the bigger feat is that just recently, the government bestowed the company with the much coveted Philippine Quality Award (PQA) for Performance Excellence, presented by President Duterte.

TMP attained the PQA Level 4, the highest level of national recognition for exemplary organizational performance in Total Quality Management (TQM). It is the first automotive manufacturing company in the Philippines to become a PQA recipient, and only the second Philippine organization in PQA’s 22-year history to achieve Level 4, the “Philippine Quality Award for Performance Excellence.”

“TMP is honored to receive such a high distinction in the PQA history, as well as to share TMP’s best practices that can serve as a benchmark for other Philippine industries,” AVT said.

TMP has a workforce of over 3,500 members and is responsible for the development of the domestic automotive manufacturing industry.

Its president Atsuhiro Okamoto said, “The PQA award further inspires us to continue to improve and ultimately help our business become more sustainable, especially with new ventures that we are taking on.”

The PQA is a national award program that recognizes achievements of organizations in their journey toward performance excellence. It was the centerpiece program of the National Action Agenda for Productivity (NAAP) in 1997, the blueprint to improve economy-wide productivity.

Props to AVT and the rest of the Toyota team.

Chapter 11

December 17 will be a crucial date for Lucio Tan-owned Philippine Airlines’ (PAL) Chapter 11 journey.

Three months after its Sept. 3 Chapter 11 filing in the United States Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York, the court will “consider confirmation of the plan on Dec. 17, 2021 at 10 a.m. (US time).”

PAL’s fate will be in the hands of “Honorable Shelley Chapman, United States Bankruptcy Judge, United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York,” according to the court notice.

“The judge will decide whether or not to agree to the recovery plan. Once ok, this will facilitate the exit process. It will not be a bed of roses. It simply means, PAL will exit from court jurisdiction on Chapter 11 of PAL, but the real work begins. The health climate will dictate the momentum of recovery,” says a source privy to the matter.

The filing is essentially a lender-assisted restructuring plan that will enable PAL to recover from the devastating impact of the global health pandemic.

Heroes vs flora and fauna

Like a lot of people, I am puzzled why the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) chose to replace our World War II heroes, Jose Abad Santos, Vicente Lim and Josefa Llanes Escoda, on our P1,000 banknote, with flora and fauna.

Actually, the country’s flora and fauna and other natural gifts are already on the reverse side of the banknotes so why eliminate the heroes?

Heroes on banknotes are important reminders of the sacrifices of the Filipino martyrs of the resistance against the Japanese occupation of World War II. Even other countries honor their heroes and leaders by putting their portraits on their banknotes.

It is history passed on to generations and generations of Filipinos, all on a piece of paper.

Without them, our freedom fighters, we wouldn’t be enjoying the relative freedom we have now, including enjoying whatever a P1,000 bill can pay for.

Iris Gonzales’ email address is [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @eyesgonzales. Column archives at eyesgonzales.com