Call center agent last man standing in Subaru PH Palm Challenge

Celebrity host Ramon Bautista interacts with the crowd.

MANILA, Philippines–The Cebu leg of the 2014 Subaru Palm Challenge Philippine Face-Off held at Ayala Center Cebu recently celebrated a new winner in call center agent Donn Michael Yap.

The 24-year-old Yap had to battle it out and endure the different challenges throughout the one-day competition, clocking an aggregate time of 12 hours, 51 minutes and 10 seconds, a new record for the Cebu leg.

Yap is the second team member to qualify and will be joining the winner from Davao last Sept. 6 at SM Lanang Premier, while eight other challengers will come from the Manila eliminations to represent the Philippine team in the regional challenge in Singapore. Yap bested some 120 participants in the Cebu leg and beat last year’s leg winner Joberth Estrera, who joined the challenge again but clocked only 10 hours, 40 minutes and 19 seconds.

What was interesting and new for this year’s Cebu leg was the event host. Actor/comedian/writer Ramon Bautista played host to the Subaru challenge event and didn’t fail to entertain the crowd as the participants agonized over the challenges. Motor Image Pilipinas took a fresh take on the funny and somewhat controversial comedian, who also hosts a TV series in the National Geographic Channel.

Tough competition

Last year, the regional finals were again held at the Ngee Ann City Plaza, right in front of the famous Takashimaya Mall along Singapore’s Orchard Road shopping district. There were a total of 400 participants, 90 of them representatives from various Asian countries including the Philippines. Last year’s winner was a 43-year-old Singaporean, Yusman Wright, who clocked a total time of 75 hours and 1 minute.

Participants get their palms on the car.

In the 12 years that the Motor Image Group has been running this contest, the grand winner has always been a Singaporean. The odds were in their favor, since they’re usually three out of four of the 400 participants. The only Filipino who came close to winning the regional finals was 31-year-old Alex Neblasca, who placed third last year. The Philippine team also took the title for the Country Team Winner, clocking a total of 518 hours and 41 minutes as a group.

The Philippine challenge has been going on its sixth year, and this year will be the second time Motor Image conducts a national search in various key cities. Previous challenges were only held in Metro Manila.

Aside from the Philippine team, other teams will come from countries around Asia with Subaru dealerships under the Motor Image Group such as Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore, home of Motor Image Group’s headquarters.

Donn Michael Yap shows off the prizes he won as leg winner-

This year’s 2014 Subaru Palm Challenge Philippine Face-Off prizes include exclusive Subaru merchandise, and P5,000 prize for the Top 9 challengers and P15,000 prize for the leg winner. Due to differences in shipping and taxes, the peso value of each country varies, but the winner-take-all grand prize for the last man standing at the MediaCorp Subaru Challenge, should the winner come from the Philippines, will be a brand-new Subaru XV 2.0i worth P1.298 million.

As eight more slots are needed to fill up the 10-man roster of the Philippine team, the registration is still open for the Manila leg of the challenge on Sept. 27 at Bonifacio High Street. Interested participants can download application forms from their website at Subaru Philippines-Motor Image-Experience Beyond Words or get a hard copy of the registration form and submit it at the Subaru showrooms in Greenhills, Bonifacio Global City, Manila Bay, Alabang and Batangas.