SunLife Tour

It was an early morning tour of Intramuros that was assigend to four male Mabuhay Guides because there was a competitive component added into it. The ocassion was a team building activity of Sunlife Finance which starts at the Fort Santiago and ends in Casa Manila.

I arrived at the site at 7:00 am to meet with the other Mabuhay Guides: Chito Tayag (team leader), Bryan Ocampo, Jeff Velasco. We met Ms Dorothy who gave us an orientation and provided us with our kits. Then as the participants started trickling into the Fort one by one we were met by Ms. Oz(?) who gave us very clear instructions on how the Amazing race style tour was to take place.

All four Mabuhay Guides were assigned a team of 10 members. I was assigned Team Ig nite, Bryan was assigned Team Inspire, Jeff was assigned Tean Unite, Chito was assigned Team Passion. Each team had a specific location where they were to begin and for each of the seven stops a question was given for the team to answer. A task was also given at the Media Naranja. The accomplished questions and task were to be submitted to the SunLife coordinator stationed at the Almacenes Reales.

At 8:00 am we were all gathered at the picnic grounds to have breakfast. At 8:20 am we were given a 10 minute warning to gather our team for the group picture at the gate. I gave my team a 5 minute run to the washroom so we can get on with the tour sans bathroom breaks. Team Ignite took a little longer but the strategy proved beneficial for the team as we had a continued run of the route. We all gathered at the Fort Santiago Gate to allow them to have their group picture taken. Chito Tayag being the designated photographer.

I started at the Wall of Martyrs and gave my commentaries on Baluarte de san Francisco Javier, American Barracks and Wall of Martyrs at the site of the plaque. I made sure that I emphasized the answers to the question at hand. Making sure they knew Ferdinand Marcos and Elpidio Quirino were in the roster.

Then we proceeded to the moat area where I gave my commentary on the Fort Santiago again emphasizing that the fort was bounded by Manila Bay on the West and the Pasig River on the North/ North East. As we went across the bridge i gathered them at the front of the main gate making sure I gave emphasis on the significance of the bas reliefs of Santiago de Matamoros and the Royal Seal of Spain.

I then led them to the Plaza Armas where I saw that Jeff's group was still around taking group photos. I had to slow down a bit, however, as there was a time limit of 10:30 am to proceed to Casa Manila, we all were a bit anxious to get on to the next stop. The Rizal Shrine, however, does not open until 9:00 am. Ergo, we had a backlog of teams getting into the shrine. I delivered my commentary on the mural by Botong Francisco outside the door and waited until Jeff's group had moved on. then I brought them in.

We then proceeded with the rest of the Rizal shrine. After completing the tour of Rizal Shrine, we went on to Casa Castellana and waited for Jeff's group to finish with Media Naranja. I gave commentaries on the higher portion of the stairs leading to Media Naranja and commened on the Roxas-DelPan Bridge and Jones Bridge. As I also do Binondo tours I gave them a small history of the Sunlife company's history.

As it turns out, Sunlife started as an insurance company known as Smith and Bell Co., UK. They had been doing business in Binondo (eventually they were based in Singson building). The company has been in business in the philippines for 115 years with a short hiatus during the Japanese occupation. They paid a war indemnity of more than 1.5M pesos after the Liberation of Manila.

At Media Naranja, we did the necessary commentaries and the had our photos taken at the sentry post. We then went on to the Chapel cell where I gave my commentaries on the Memorial Cross, the Postigo, and the memorial walk to martyrdom of Jose Rizal... after which we went on to the Almacenes Reales where I gave them commentaries on Plaza Moriones and the former chapel of Nstra. Sra dela Encarnacion. I submitted the team's task kit to the Sunlife Coordinator and we were instructed to proceed to Casa Manila.

The team was fircely competitive and they decided to take two cars so we could arrive at Casa Manila as a group. There goes my commentary on Plaza Roma and the Cathedral and the Governor's Palace.

At Casa Manila. we were the first group to arrive so I immediately launched on my commentary. So I showed them all over the facility and gave them more info on each and every section of the home. Some were beginning to lose interest... however I had to stop them from wandering off. Good thing I did as my team was tied with Bryan's team.

We were the first team to proceed to Illustrado Restaurant. Eventually, the other teams started to trickle in. Partial results showed that Team Ignite and Team Inspire were tied and to break the tie between the two teams a series of questions were to be asked. The team with the most accumulated points wins. Team Ignite ended up the winners.

We bid our goodbyes to the coordinators and our respective teams.