14th CONVENTION OF MOTORCYCLE CLUBS
CAGAYAN DE, ORO, APRIL 7, 2008 (STAR) INSIDE CEBU By Bobit S. Avila – It’s the 14th Annual Convention of the National Federation of Motorcycle Clubs in the Philippines (NFMCP), which has now become a major domestic tourism event in this country that brings more than a thousand motorcycles of all brands to the host city and Cagayan de Oro’s Kagayanon Cruzers are this year’s hosts. This annual event is perhaps the most democratic group ever seen in this country because the presidency of the NFMCP is rotated among Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao and given to the president of the club hosting the annual event.
Our group, the Easy Riders Motorcycle Club, took the Trans Asia vessel Asia China from the Port of Cebu, together with The Thunderbugs, our brother riders from Bacolod City, and many other riders from Cebu like the Flying Seven Riders Club of Cebu. We arrived at the Port of Cagayan early morning and looked forward to checking in our hotel, but then we hit that usual snag that tourism officials probably did not realize was a stumbling block to Cagayan de Oro’s tourism campaign.
The incident was simple, but very stupid because the guards at the port refused to let our motorcycles leave unless we paid arrastre charges. I’ve written volumes about this “legalized extortion” through the arrastre “handling” charges because their workers really do nothing but look at us as we ride our bikes from the vessel into the port!
But as good citizens, we never balk when asked to pay any charges, even questionable ones such as these. That’s a mere P110 per bike! But the whole trouble is, the cashier hasn’t yet arrived, so Cagayan’s tourism had to wait for this confounded bureaucrat. Since we had a backup vehicle with a trailer, we asked the guard if we could leave them behind to wait in the port till the cashier arrived. But the guard refused to open the gates. We then demanded to see the man in charge and when he arrived, Port Duty Manager Antonio Cabatos finally agreed to open the gates. An hour later our backup arrived after paying the fees.
When will Cagayan de Oro officials realize that their port is the welcome mat of their city? Being a huge tourism event, we expected that the Port of Cagayan would have given us a red carpet treatment. In fact during the opening ceremonies of the convention, Mayor Constantino “Tinnex” Jaraula issued Executive Order 088 suspending the city’s laws to show their support for the convention. Gov. Oscar Moreno, too, gave a speech about Cagayan’s tourism growth and I told both of them that if they did not do anything to streamline the Port of Cagayan, they would never move forward.
Too many biker friends of mine told me that this is always the problem with the Port of Cagayan de Oro, where domestic tourists who bring vehicles on ro-ro vessels have to wait for the cashier who takes his sweet time in going to the office. I guess this problem should be given special attention by our good friend Tourism Secretary Ace Durano because it makes a mockery of Cagayan’s effort to promote tourism.
The convention site was the Limketkai Mall and when we got there, it was already packed with motorcycles of all kinds. I’d like to point out that when the Thunderbugs, Cycluns and the other motorcycle clubs created the Motorcycle Federation more than 14 years ago, it was supposed to be a big bike convention only. Years later, it has involved all kinds of motorcycle organizations.
It was the first time for Cagayan de Oro to host the convention (I have attended all the conventions, except last year as I was in the US) and this was supported by many sponsors; perhaps the company that gave all-out support to the convention was BMW Motorrad, which had the best display and offered free tune-up and full support to BMW riders. I merely left my bike with BMW’s chief mechanic Nestor and he gave it a quick tune-up. That is what we call full service for BMW owners like me.
In the evening, we met with old friends like Manolete Lamata of Thunderbugs and Ken Angeles of On Any Sunday Riders of Davao City. From Cebu we had the Easyriders Club of Ed Gonzales, the Cycluns MC of Gen. Tiboy Fusilero, the Star Club of Danny Libron (yes, he brought his Boss Hoss, the biggest bike here), and Jorge Ledesma of Recycle MC. Then there were the Cruizers Cebu, the V-Max Owners Group (VOG), and Hero MC.
Also there were the Barracudas and Husky of GenSan; the Agila Riders; Kabayan and Durian Riders of Davao; BLAST of Alfred Romualdez, last year’s host club; the Flying Squad Riders Club; the Lawin MC; Vigan Heritage MC; BMW Owners Society of Saferiders Phils (BOSS); and of course, the host club, the Kagayanon Krusers of Jefferson Rolida. Yakatay, the oldest rider from the Classic Riders, was there. We couldn’t name all the clubs.
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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