Commentary by Tessa R. Salazar
The posh grand ballroom of the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Bonifacio Global City was transformed last Jan. 31 into a bazaar of sorts, a collection of “sari-sari” store huts placed at strategic corners of the spacious hall. They were the sidelights of the Pinoy fiesta-themed thanksgiving party Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP) and its luxury brand Lexus held for the motoring media. Giveaways and prizes consisted of local products and delicacies like durian candies from Davao, and Batangas Barako ground coffee (which could rival any Italian-branded coffee).
On an occasion when the country’s top-selling automaker could have highlighted its achievements in an ultra-modern, high-tech fashion, it chose to go the “intimate” route with Pinoy culture and nostalgia. In spite of all the accolades TMP heaped upon its sales, aftersales, and service teams leading TMP to another dominating year (becoming the 3rd biggest market in Southeast Asia), the undertone throughout the proceedings was palpably biased for the small and medium entrepreneur.
It was as if TMP was whispering, “Oh sure, our sedans, SUVs, pickups, hybrids, vans, EVs, sports cars, and supercars can step aside just for tonight, because tonight is the night for the Pinoy workhorse. It’s time to celebrate the Tamaraw.”
Yes, the Toyota Tamaraw has been revived, and the all-new modernized utility vehicle was re-introduced Dec. 6 last year, 5 decades after it began dominating Philippine roads in the 1970s.
It’s a sound business decision for TMP to bring back a redesigned Tamaraw at this time. The recent pandemic brought out the entrepreneurial spirit of many erstwhile office-bound employees. Cooped up at home for nearly two years because of the lockdowns, many were forced to seek incomes from other means. Not a few dug into their personal passions and skills, and started offering homegrown (or home-cooked) products. Many of the mom-and-pop businesses you see flourishing right now were born during these times.
However, I think there’s a deeper reason why Toyota has been so dead-set in resurrecting the Tamaraw nameplate. It has something to do with Toyota’s own beginnings. And by beginnings, we have to go back in the times and circumstances Toyota Industries’ founder Sakichi Toyoda was born.
Born in 1867, Sakichi was the son of a farmer, who moonlighted as a highly skilled carpenter to support his family.
According to documents from Toyota Industries Corp, Sakichi’s early childhood coincided with that period in Japanese history when the shogunate was replaced by a new government under the Meiji Emperor. This period has been generally regarded as the beginning of modern Japan.
Amidst social upheavals, the village where Sakichi lived was plagued with poverty. So, in his early teens, Sakichi already set out to earn his own keep and become useful to society. On days when there was no carpentry, Sakichi would assiduously read newspapers and magazines. He brought the local youth together in an evening study group that promoted self-learning.
The hand loom
When Sakichi became an adult, he ventured into machinery. He became interested in the hand loom used by local farm families. Sakichi studied how to improve the efficiency of the hand loom. Working in a barn, he built (and subsequently destroyed) a number of looms. It was in 1890, however, that Sakichi came out with his first successful invention: The Toyoda wooden hand loom. He received his first patent for that loom in 1891, when he was 24.
Riding on the hand loom’s success, Sakichi founded Toyota Industries Corp on Nov. 18, 1926. Meanwhile, Sakichi’s son Kiichiro Toyoda traveled to Europe and the United States in 1929 on a research mission to expand the family’s loom-making business, and to venture into the automobile industry.
Tony Lewin, author of the book “A to Z of 21st Century Cars,” wrote that in 1930, the company began developing gasoline engines, producing its first vehicle prototypes in 1935.
“The Car Book: The Definitive Visual History,” described how, in 1930, Kiichiro built a two-cylinder engine and then a small car to run it, but it was not successful. Starting again from scratch, he then produced a more conventional American-type car, with a Chevrolet-sourced chassis, flowing Chrysler-like body, and overhead-valve, straight-six, 3,389-cc engine. Called the Toyota Model AA, it entered production in 1936. On Aug. 28, 1937, Kiichiro founded Toyota Motor Company Limited.
According to “The Car Book,” the name was changed from ‘Toyoda’ to ‘Toyota’ because it was easier to pronounce in English and, crucially, when written in Japanese, it had 8 strokes—a lucky number in Japan.”
See? Not only China considers the number 8 as lucky. Checking online, I find that there’s a Lucky 8 Store, a Lucky 8th Trading, Lucky8 Laundry Shop and, yes, you guessed it, a Lucky 8 Sari-Sari Store.
Anyway, back to the story. In a post-war Japan, Kiichiro’s TMC was struggling to stay afloat. In 1950, wage reductions and layoffs were announced across the company, leading to an 8-week strike (oops, an unlucky number in this instance) by the workforce that caused Kiichiro to resign. His nephew, Eiji Toyoda, then took the helm. “The Car Book” wrote that Eiji spent three months in the States at the Ford Motor Co plant, and what he saw there would later help him to transform Toyota into one of Japan’s most efficient car manufacturers.
From automaker to flour mill
Auto historian Jonathan Mantle, author of “Car Wars,” wrote, “In 1950, the company was almost broke. Toyota was selling fewer than 300 trucks a month, and it had stopped making cars altogether. One plant switched production to flour and bread to feed its workers. Others made pots and pans. CEO Shotaro Kamiya, made the long journey to the United States in the hope of striking a deal with the great Ford Motor Company.”
That was a last-ditch effort by Kamiya. If no deal was struck with Ford, Toyota would go kaput. (Note: Other accounts would say Eiji made the trip to the States. Suffice to say, a team from Toyota did make the Stateside trip to Ford.)
But Ford was not interested. The US Defense Department also opposed any deal with the Japanese carmaker, on the grounds that it would distract Ford from domestic American production.
Mantle wrote: “To Kamiya, the journey home to Japan was even longer. By the time he arrived home, however, the Korean War had broken out. Japan’s proximity to Korea made it an ally of America in the war against Communist China. Kamiya was greeted with an order from the Pentagon for 1,500 trucks a month.
“The war dividend had saved Toyota and many other Japanese companies,” Mantle continued, adding that the profits from the Pentagon’s truck purchases enabled Kamiya and Eiji to consider making cars again.
Teach people to drive
“In the short term, it was the large order for military vehicles from the Allied Occupation Authority during the Korean War of 1950 to 1953 that saved Toyota from bankruptcy. In an ingenious effort to boost sales, Toyota began teaching people to drive. The scheme was a success, since most new drivers were keen to buy the make of car in which they had learned,” Mantle wrote.
Internally, Toyota was also getting its act together. It ended a two-month labor dispute on June 10, 1950 with a new system, a new labor agreement, and a revision of the salary system. The company was well on its way to being the most successful automaker of all time. But at the time, in the wake of a war-devastated Japan, Toyota was struggling to make ends meet, uncertain of its future.
Rejected loans
A similar story could also be said of Toyota Motor Philippines’ original chair, the late Dr. George SK Ty. This story was quoted from former Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s eulogy at George’s wake in 2018:
“Legend has it that George was a mere teenager when he endeavored to put up his first business in the Philippines, a flour mill. Legend has it, too, that he could not find any financial institution to back him, because as a newcomer and outsider in Manila (he was born in Hong Kong in 1932; his father Norberto founded Wellington Flour Mills), he did not have the credentials or local track record that the banks demanded. But still he persevered and prevailed, and legend has it that it was his experience of difficulty in getting banks to finance his early entrepreneurial efforts that inspired him, 10 years later, to establish his own bank.”
George, apart from being the first chairperson of TMP, also founded Metrobank on Sept. 5, 1962, at the age of 29.
At the Grand Hyatt party last Jan. 31, it was George’s son Alfred V. Ty who was the TMP chair addressing the guests. “The Philippine automotive industry achieved a new all-time sales record last year with sales of 474,000 units. This is an increase of 8% from last year, outdoing the previous record of 473,000 reported in 2017.
“We at Toyota are happy that we can continue to play a significant role in the country’s rapidly transforming automotive industry. With sales of 218,019 units last year, Toyota and Lexus recorded another all-time record high. Completing 23 consecutive years of our triple crown, the Philippines remained among the 10 largest markets for Toyota worldwide. More importantly, it helped us secure jobs for over 69,000 Filipinos in 2024 and realize over US$ 1 billion of exports for the country and contribute P35 billion to government revenues.”
Alfred also thanked the media “for chronicling every step of our journey in bringing the Tamaraw back to the Philippines. We are convinced that the return of the Tamaraw will be a real game changer in the local auto industry.”
In 2025, Alfred’s team is projecting 512,000 units of vehicles to be sold, “representing a sustained growth of 8%.”
“This opens new horizons for local production that will help government in its goal of strengthening the manufacturing sector. I am hoping that we can harness the collective power of every automaker doing business in the country in realizing a more united automotive program to develop the auto industry into a major economic force in support of the nation’s long-term development plans,” said Alfred.
And of course, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are a priority in TMP’s plans. TMP president Masando Hashimoto disclosed that the Toyota Tamaraw is set for further expansion in 2025.
“We plan to further (Tamaraw’s) legacy throughout this year with the launch of additional conversions and additional services, catering to any and all customers. This is also in line with acquisition and value chain options, including 10% downpayment, trade-in options, and periodic maintenance promotions,” said Hashimoto.
People like 65-year-old entrepreneur Jeremias “Jerry” B. Rivas Jr would love this. Jerry is the owner of a 45-year-old Tamaraw I featured in my Road Talk column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper. He bought his Tamaraw in 1979 for exactly P32,330.25, equivalent to roughly P920,000 in today’s rates, adjusted for inflation.
For over two decades, Jerry used his Tamaraw to deliver rice to customers in Metro Manila. Once a month, starting in 1980 up to now, he would drive his Tamaraw to Urdaneta in Pangasinan (where his farm is located to this day). In that span of 44 years (and counting), not once did his Tamaraw stall. “Except for a flat tire,” Jerry quips. Jerry proudly shares that his Tamaraw could still run up to 100 kph on the expressways.
The Tamaraw as an icon is as enduring as the Tamaraw the machine. They’re fitting tributes to the indefatigable bovine the vehicle is named after.
Sadly, the fate of the real Tamaraw, the Babalus Mindorensis endemic to the island of Mindoro, is quite uncertain. The species has been declared critically endangered, with only about 500 to 600 individuals spotted. In 2024, TMP Foundation, TMP’s social and humanitarian arm, signed a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to support the Tamaraw Conservation Program. The planned partnership will address Philippine biodiversity conservation efforts towards protecting the Tamaraw species and its habitat.
I’m hoping that, like the machine that adopted its name, the beast would also end up as a triumphant comeback story.