No, it’s not all just about business

It has been a little over a year since the local automotive industry had the spotlight trained on it for reasons other than registering phenomenal record sales of vehicles or for a spectacular new vehicle offering that may take the country by storm. 

The Society of Philippine Motoring Journalists or SPMJ, a group of editors, publishers, TV producers and hosts, online practitioners, writers, reporters—all journalists that are engaged in the motoring and automotive beat once again took the initiative to recognize and put into fore the good deeds of the members of the motoring industry all geared toward the upliftment of the lives of our countrymen in varied ways and fields like education and training, road safety, community development and environment.

The Driven to Serve Awards aims to inspire the entire automotive industry to engage further in these Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects—make those that are already currently deeply involved to do better and those that aren’t yet to get started.

Rod Franco, President and CEO of NLEX Corporation, one of the judges for the 2018 SPMJ Driven To Serve Awards

The idea to give ample credit where credit is duly due came about when this group of closely-knit motoring journalists started realizing that many of the CSR activities of auto industry members that they have been invited to have mostly gone unpublished and unheralded and to the indifference of the industry.    

For so many years varied laudable efforts geared toward nation building and the improvement of the lives of our countrymen have been engaged in by many of the country’s car manufacturers and importers. Many of these initiatives are selfless and don’t even have any relevance to the marketing and sales of their products and done without fanfare.

SPMJ thought that it’s about time that the country gets to know that this business sector is not just about business, so therefore the annual Driven To Serve Awards of the Society of Philippine Motoring Journalists. 

The panel of judges and Pinky Colmenares presenting the Platinum Award to Atty. Louie Soriano and Maricel Quilao of Honda Cars Philippines for Tree Planting with Haribon Foundation’s Road to 2020

The very intimate 2^nd Driven To Serve Awards recognition night was held at the Yuchengco Museum in Ayala Avenue, Makati City last Wednesday, March 7.  

The members of SPMJ would like to express their heartfelt appreciation to Mr. Rod Franco, president of NLEX Corp. who again demonstrated his firm belief in this recognition and awarding of outstanding CSR projects of the local auto industry for the second straight year.

The 2^nd ‘Driven To Serve Awards’ was presented in cooperation with NLEX Corporation with the participation of Petron Corporation, Clorox International Company and Vista Residences.

Congratulations to all the awardees.

Happy Motoring!!!

For comments and inquiries, email [email protected].

The panel of judges and Pinky Colmenares presenting the Platinum Award to Bertrand Lessard and Josephine Gonzales of Ford Philippines for Operation Better World and Driving Skills For Life