Thriller in Manila (and beyond!)
The Land Rover Club of the Philippines welcomes all models and has around 800 members
WITH Land Rovers being sold to a global market you find clubs and enthusiasts dedicated to the green oval all around the world.
UK enthusiasts are lucky to have a vast resource of both old and new vehicles as well as easy access to a plentiful supply of both new and secondhand parts, but many of the overseas clubs aren’t so fortunate in that respect. However, while access for off-roading in the UK is very limited, many overseas clubs have ample terrain of the sort that Land Rovers were built for.
One such club is the Land Rover Club of the Philippines, who recently celebrated its 21st anniversary. Despite the global pandemic, the club managed to run a number of events during the past year. And when the Category 5 super typhoon Rolly (Goni) struck the Philippines in November, club members used their Land Rovers to deliver aid to the stricken regions (more on that in a bit).
So, where did it all start? In 1998 a handful of Land Rover enthusiasts started exploring the off-road trails leading to the volcano Mount Pinatubo, located in central Luzon. They soon conceived the idea of forming a club and in December 1999, the Land Rover Club of the Philippines was formally established. By 1999, members’ vehicles included mainly Series models and Range Rover two-door and four-door models. The LRCP is a non-profit organisation dedicated to the enjoyment of Land Rover and Range Rover vehicles and ownership is required to qualify for membership. Today, the LRCP has around 800 members from the Philippines and neighbouring countries. From the start, the club supported the efforts of Land Rover owners to compete in off-road competitions. During those early years, Dale Abenojar, a Filipino mountain tour guide and adventurer, raced his Range Rover HSE trialler in the National Off-road Championship and became the overall champion. Interestingly, in 2006, Dale sold it to raise funds for his bid to climb Mount Everest and became the first Filipino to reach the summit.
In 2004, the LRCP president, Robby Consunji, was appointed the Philippine representative of the Rainforest Challenge of Malaysia, an international off-road jungle adventure competition. Robby went on to organise a Filipino team in a Defender 90 and 110 to compete in the event from 2005 to 2018.
In 2009, the club began organising disaster relief operations in response to the natural disasters that struck the country, such as flooding, typhoons, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The relief operations initially involved providing 4WD transportation to remote off-road destinations. The club later evolved to manage almost every facet of relief operations and in 2013 conducted relief operations at Tacloban, Leyte, in response to the super Typhoon Haiyan.
In 2011, the Club hosted the Land Rover Festival, a three-day event in the foothills of the volcano Mount Pinatubo in Pampanga. Competitors flew-in from Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Canada and the USA. This became the annual event known as the Rovernuts Festival, which has since been hosted in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Australia.
For its 20th Anniversary in 2019, LRCP gathered pristine, rare and unique Land Rover and Range Rover models through the years in the Philippines to promote the appreciation of the brand and the restoration of vintage Land Rovers.
The club hosts regular off-road driving courses at the Jungle Base Firing Range & 4x4 Centre, in the foothills of the Sierra Madre Mountain Range, too.
Looking forward the LRCP is now planning for 2022 the 60th Anniversary of the first Philippine Land Rover Safari, which took place in 1962 and involved ten Land Rover Series IIAS in a 14-day safari around Luzon, with a crew of 33 participants. The plan is to trace the route and to blaze new trails for the year 2022. The club needs to research for photos, stories and movies of the event in 1962 first though! Sounds great.