“I can sense a demolition job in the offing.”
Jun Hilomen, manager of QWIK Private Motor Vehicle Inspection Center in Angeles City, Pampanga, repeated this line as he answered point by point the allegations made by businesman Rene Romero regarding supposed irregularities in its roadworthiness testing procedure.
“He is clearly manipulating the facts. Very offending yan. Dapat lang niyang bawiin ang lahat ng sinabi niya laban sa amin,” said Hilomen, who raised five points against the complaints Romero had made after vehicle safety inspections were conducted by QWIK on his sports car on January 11 and 15, 2021.
1) There was no payment made for retesting the vehicle.
Hilomen dared Romero to present an official receipt to back up his claim that he was made to pay P900 for the re-inspection of his vehicle, a BMW Z4, on January 15. Since the opening of QWIK a few months ago, Hilomen said they have never asked customers to pay the P900 retesting fee for humanitarian consideration since the system is still new to motorists.
2) Hilomen did not drive Romero’s vehicle into the testing bay.
Contrary to Romero’s story, Hilomen said that he didn’t drive the businessman’s Z4 during the first testing procedure or for the retesting run. They let the technicians do their jobs.
“We only drive the cars for testing when it is really needed,” the QWIK official stressed.
3) The Z4’s brake system underwent repair in between tests.
Figures don’t lie, asserted Hilomen. The LTO inspection report on the Z4’s brake-force test showed scores of 50% for the front and 45% for the rear, which merit a failing mark based on the Land Transportation Office’s standards under the new Motor Vehicle Inspection System. But when the vehicle was driven back to the facility for retesting, it registered scores of 61% and 64%, leading to a passing mark. The big discrepancy in the figures is enough basis for Hilomen to believe that the brake issues were fixed by mechanics.
4) The vehicle arrived late at the facility.
Hilomen said there’s no truth to Romero’s statement that on January 11, his driver arrived at the QWIK facility around 9am and the vehicle inspection started before noontime. According to Hilomen, CCTV footage shows that the vehicle arrived around 11:50am and the testing procedure was completed around 1:10pm the same day.
Hilomen wants Romero to make a public apology or face the legal consequences of his accusations.
NOTE: This article first appeared on TopBikes.ph. Minor edits have been made.
