Vaya con Dios, Sir Bingo!
July 25, 2005 | 12:00am
The year 2000 gave me the opportunity to work with Mr. Fermin "Bingo" Zamora for a story on "Asian Spirit Connecting the Islands" as cover story for The FREEMAN Sunday Magazine.
Sir Bingo served as General Manager of the Cebu hub of Asian Spirit, the fleet that sports festive colors in its Masskara-inspired logo, complemented with monochromatic hues.
Working with him for that anniversary project gave me an insight as to how Sir Bingo zealously worked together with other industry players in bringing Asian Spirit to what it is now. He babbled about Asian Spirit quite making quite a stir in Caticlan island in Aklan when their DeHavilland Dash 7 first landed in the sleepy airport on April 1, 1996.
Sir Bingo's spirit enabled him to strengthen airline services in secondary and tertiary routes where Asian Spirit is venturing into. These are called "missionary destinations" often sidestepped by major airlines. He told me of flights often being cancelled at the slightest sign of rain, or, on occasion, when passenger count would fall below the breakeven point.
He recounted - with chin up like a child in kinder garten proud of his star - that Asian Spirit was once the country's youngest airline. In its thrust to connect the beautiful islands of the archipelago, it undertook bold flights initiated by 36 founding members, owning and running the airline operations, equipped with rich airline experience ranging from 15 to 25 years.
Once, he told me Asian Spirit carries the distinction of being the only airline cooperative in the country established by the Airline Employees Cooperative, registered with the Cooperative Development Authority under the office of the President and other governing agencies. That it is the first local cooperative in the airline industry established in September 1995 by a group of professionals and employees from various airline disciplines.
Asian Spirit, Sir Bingo's "baby", officially becomes "The People's Airline" and carries out the objective of operating scheduled services to established tourist destinations and other tertiary airports not served by the national carrier but with the potential of serving incoming airline industry players.
My business relationship with Sir Bingo continued in the following year as another cover story featured Executive Vice President Joaquin Ernesto "Jack" Po. After that, the assignment went from being a full-length anniversary feature story to travel stories that saw print in the then revived The FREEMAN Magazine and also in the travel section of The FREEMAN Lifestyle.
Last week, I received a phone call from Vicky Vencilao, the account executive handling the Asian Spirit , giving me a sad note. "Nor, Sir Bingo passed away…4pm," I heard Vicky from the other line.
The Sir Bingo I knew to be "strict, mataray, picky, a perfectionist" has taken his own flight back to his Maker. And I did ask myself, how would I remember the man? I only knew him from a distance. I would see him at his office when he calls up for an assignment and I can only count the moments I had a real chat with him - which means not about business talk all the time, but also about my dreams and aspirations. The best way I can pay tribute to the man is through this column. I would like to thank him - Sir Bingo - for believing in me.
"I don't want any other writer, Vicky. I want to work with Eleanor only," he would tell our account executive.
"Gi-pa frame na gani na nako iyang mga articles sa office kay maayo iyang agi," he said, which aroused my curiosity so that I did pay him a visit to check on my stories on the walls of his office.
And indeed, lined up there were my write-ups that set the connection, the bonding between me, Sir Bingo, and Asian Spirit.
The next years saw me around in almost all of the firm's familiarization tours. So many places to remember, that if it weren't for Sir Bingo, would still remain places for me to find out - Naga in Camarines Sur, Boracay in Aklan, Tandag in Surigao del Sur, Cagayan de Oro City in Misamis Oriental, among many other destinations.
The last project I had with him was the Cagayan de Oro Familiarization Tour of which I was included in the list of participants for the white-water rafting adventure. Sir Bingo knew how I love adventure - the extreme - that he thought of me even if I'm not with the marketing department anymore. He called up Vicky to have me included because he remembered me mentioning the white-water rafting stuff of which I would want to try.
Sir Bingo was a gift to me! He was kind enough to back me up in my travels to participate in the Mt. Pinatubo conquest a year ago, spearheaded by the Philippine Backpackers of Central Luzon. Before I left his office that was the time we talked about white-water rafting. Last April 27, he fulfilled a promise and stood behind that pursuit to discover the extreme experience of white-water rafting. Now, Sir Bingo takes the missionary route back to his Maker responsible for all winged creatures and craft. Wish his Asian spirit would be emblazoned on more skies even if he did bid us bye-bye! Vaya con dios, Sir Bingo!
Working with him for that anniversary project gave me an insight as to how Sir Bingo zealously worked together with other industry players in bringing Asian Spirit to what it is now. He babbled about Asian Spirit quite making quite a stir in Caticlan island in Aklan when their DeHavilland Dash 7 first landed in the sleepy airport on April 1, 1996.
Sir Bingo's spirit enabled him to strengthen airline services in secondary and tertiary routes where Asian Spirit is venturing into. These are called "missionary destinations" often sidestepped by major airlines. He told me of flights often being cancelled at the slightest sign of rain, or, on occasion, when passenger count would fall below the breakeven point.
He recounted - with chin up like a child in kinder garten proud of his star - that Asian Spirit was once the country's youngest airline. In its thrust to connect the beautiful islands of the archipelago, it undertook bold flights initiated by 36 founding members, owning and running the airline operations, equipped with rich airline experience ranging from 15 to 25 years.
Once, he told me Asian Spirit carries the distinction of being the only airline cooperative in the country established by the Airline Employees Cooperative, registered with the Cooperative Development Authority under the office of the President and other governing agencies. That it is the first local cooperative in the airline industry established in September 1995 by a group of professionals and employees from various airline disciplines.
Asian Spirit, Sir Bingo's "baby", officially becomes "The People's Airline" and carries out the objective of operating scheduled services to established tourist destinations and other tertiary airports not served by the national carrier but with the potential of serving incoming airline industry players.
My business relationship with Sir Bingo continued in the following year as another cover story featured Executive Vice President Joaquin Ernesto "Jack" Po. After that, the assignment went from being a full-length anniversary feature story to travel stories that saw print in the then revived The FREEMAN Magazine and also in the travel section of The FREEMAN Lifestyle.
Last week, I received a phone call from Vicky Vencilao, the account executive handling the Asian Spirit , giving me a sad note. "Nor, Sir Bingo passed away…4pm," I heard Vicky from the other line.
The Sir Bingo I knew to be "strict, mataray, picky, a perfectionist" has taken his own flight back to his Maker. And I did ask myself, how would I remember the man? I only knew him from a distance. I would see him at his office when he calls up for an assignment and I can only count the moments I had a real chat with him - which means not about business talk all the time, but also about my dreams and aspirations. The best way I can pay tribute to the man is through this column. I would like to thank him - Sir Bingo - for believing in me.
"I don't want any other writer, Vicky. I want to work with Eleanor only," he would tell our account executive.
"Gi-pa frame na gani na nako iyang mga articles sa office kay maayo iyang agi," he said, which aroused my curiosity so that I did pay him a visit to check on my stories on the walls of his office.
And indeed, lined up there were my write-ups that set the connection, the bonding between me, Sir Bingo, and Asian Spirit.
The next years saw me around in almost all of the firm's familiarization tours. So many places to remember, that if it weren't for Sir Bingo, would still remain places for me to find out - Naga in Camarines Sur, Boracay in Aklan, Tandag in Surigao del Sur, Cagayan de Oro City in Misamis Oriental, among many other destinations.
The last project I had with him was the Cagayan de Oro Familiarization Tour of which I was included in the list of participants for the white-water rafting adventure. Sir Bingo knew how I love adventure - the extreme - that he thought of me even if I'm not with the marketing department anymore. He called up Vicky to have me included because he remembered me mentioning the white-water rafting stuff of which I would want to try.
Sir Bingo was a gift to me! He was kind enough to back me up in my travels to participate in the Mt. Pinatubo conquest a year ago, spearheaded by the Philippine Backpackers of Central Luzon. Before I left his office that was the time we talked about white-water rafting. Last April 27, he fulfilled a promise and stood behind that pursuit to discover the extreme experience of white-water rafting. Now, Sir Bingo takes the missionary route back to his Maker responsible for all winged creatures and craft. Wish his Asian spirit would be emblazoned on more skies even if he did bid us bye-bye! Vaya con dios, Sir Bingo!
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