Homegrown workhorse

The Toyota Tamaraw is proudly made by Filipinos for Filipinos

- By KAP MACEDA AGUILA

In a rare move, Toyota Motor Philippines Corporation (TMP) recently opened the gates to its sprawling 78-hectare, Philippine Export Zone Authority (PEZA)-accredited Santa Rosa, Laguna facility to guests and select members of the media. More specifically, the company allowed an even more exclusive look at its manufacturing operations – giving us permission to document the goings-on via video and photography.

The star of the show was, of course, the Tamaraw – TMP’s returning commercial vehicle nameplate just launched publicly last Friday and whose first units will arrive at showrooms early next year. Verily, the event was fittingly staged at the location where the TMP assembly lines churn out the Vios and Innova because the Tamaraw has joined these models as very proudly Philippine-made.

Appropriately, too, members of the TMP team comprised the bulk of the audience at the gym where the various iterations of the model were unveiled in a "roll-off" ceremony.

"I have great confidence that the Tamaraw will be a resounding success in the Philippines, truly a game-changer, and will meet the evolving demands of our customers and strengthen further our footprint in this market," said Toyota Asia Region Deputy CEO Hao Quoc Tien in his speech, personally addressing the TMP team, key stakeholders, government partners, and members of the media.

He described the local assembly of the Tamaraw as "a capability breakthrough, being first of its kind in the Southeast Asian region."