DUMAGUETE CITY — After 12 days on the road, 35 of the 40 big bike motorcycle riders from different parts of Mindanao culminated the longest cross- country motorcycle ride here, after conquering around 4,000 kilometers of the seven biggest islands of the Philippines.
The riders participating the nationwide big bike motorcycle tour, dubbed as the 5th Mindanao Freedom Ride, started their journey from their respective towns and cities on Nov. 5, then travelled to the islands of Leyte, Samar, Luzon, Mindoro, Panay and Negros, visiting 36 provinces in 15 regions, travelling as far as Aparri, and surviving the dangers of the Halsema Highway in the Mountain Province.
“So far, this is the biggest from Mindanao, and the country’s longest big bike motorcycle ride,” said Juan Andre Lacson, event organizer and CEO of Norminring Motorbikes.
“We started this event five years ago with the aim to showcase how [it is] peaceful and safe to ride across the roads in Mindanao, the freedom to roam just about anywhere. We invited riders from different parts of the country to visit Mindanao, and experience its beauty, with the hope of changing the perspective and removing the stigma that Mindanao is a place of violence and conflict. This year, we decided the to bring that message to other parts of the country,” Lacson said.
Lacson pointed out the ride would also bring attention to motorcycle tourism, as well as evaluate what needs to be improved on the ferry services that provide transport to vehicles crossing from one island to the other.
For the majority of the riders, it was their first time to visit the towns and cities they passed through or stayed on. The 12-day ride was not only considered the longest, but also one of the fastest, and most challenging cross-country tours.
Erbing Arriaga, a 59-year-old businessman from the Davao Tigers, noted the fun and joy in joining the freedom ride.
“I’ve been riding big bike motorcycles since 1989, and this is my first experience to ride this far. I enjoyed it so much, and it was a great feeling riding with fellow riders from Mindanao. The camaraderie was something that only fellow motorcycle riders can relate to. Hopefully, more rides like this will be promoted throughout the country to entice more people to get into moto-tourism,” said Arriaga.
Nonoy Zambra, a 52-year-old rider from Koronadal City, South Cotabato, and president of Scott Riders Philippines Inc., expressed how he enjoyed the long ride.
“It was a good fun experience; this ride is a good addition to the years of experience for me as well as to the entire group. I’ve toured Luzon back in 1998 but we were using smaller dirt bikes back then, and ended doing the tour in 21 days. Now we have bigger motorbikes, the communication, and technology we have today is not as hard as before, making our ride more convenient; but its more challenging since we travelled farther, and the [fewer] number of days we did it. It was hard, tougher, but amazingly great,” said Zambra.
He added that the hard part in the tour was navigating through heavy traffic in Metro Manila and some parts of Luzon, comparing it to the laid back ride they are used to having in Mindanao.
For the majority of the riders who joined the ride, the hardest part was navigating through the most dangerous stretch of road in the Philippines, the Halsema Highway.
Travelling through portions of treacherous muddy, landslide-covered, and narrow pathways between Banaue, Mayoyao leading to Aguinaldo in Ifugao Province was where many riders lost their balance and fell on the ground. Yet, they all persevered the ride that ended their sixth day in Aparri.
Day 1 of the longest ride started on Nov. 5, with riders from 16 different big bike clubs and organizations from Mindanao, together with the Norminring motorcycle crew which arrived Saturday morning in the port of Lipata in Surigao City after conquering heavy rains along the way brought by the low pressure area. The same day, the riders arrived in San Ricardo, Leyte, then travelled to Tacloban City, and then to Calbayog, Samar.
From Samar, they crossed via ferry to Sorsogon, ending Day 2 in Naga City.
Day 3 started in Naga going to Atimonan in Quezon Province, then spending a night in Laiya, Batangas.
Day 4 of the ride brought the riders through the heavy traffic of Metro Manila to visit big bike motorcycle showrooms of KTM and Ducati, then ending the trip in Baguio City.
Days 5 and 6 brought the freedom riders to Sagada in the Cordillera Mountains, with a view of the rice terraces of Banaue, upto Aparri.
The highlight for Day 7 trip was giving aid and assistance to typhoon victims of Pagudpud in Ilocos Norte where the Mindanao Freedom Ride group, together with Raymond Gabriel of Together We Ride motorcycle blog, and the Breakfast Ride Club donated about P60,000 to 12 families who lost most of their houses to Super Typhoon Lawin (Haima) that hit the area in October.
Day 8 brought the riders to explore the streets of the City of Vigan, then a ride to San Fernando in La Union, and to the Clark Freeport in Angeles City in Pampanga.
By Day 9, hundreds of other motorcycle riders from all over Metro Manila joined the Mindanao Freedom Riders.
“Boss Motorcycle Club came to assist us going into Manila, where we met up with the HPG group at the North Luzon Expressway southbound. We proceeded to the South Luzon Expressway Km. 44 to meet up with different clubs. They prepared food and drinks, I lost numbers how many went there, but I guess we were more than 100 there from different big bike motorcycle clubs all over Metro Manila,” said Gabriel of Breakfast Ride Club.
Days 9 and 10 brought the riders across the waves from the port of Batangas to the island of Mindoro, then on to another ferry ride to Caticlan in Aklan, where they spent a night in the world-famous white sands of Boracay Island for a well-deserved break.
By Day 11 and 12, the big bikers traveled from Caticlan to Iloilo City where they took another ferry across to Bacolod City. The tour culminated here in the coastal University Town of Dumaguete City. The next day, the bikers crossed from the port of Dumaguete in Central Visayas to Dapitan City in the island of Mindanao, ending the Philippine loop.
