Meet the Motorela Inventor: Raphael Floirendo

WORDS cannot describe this exceptionally gifted man who made an enormous impact on the way we commute today. His invention was not only a gift to Kagay-anons, but also to a lot of commuters in the countryside who would want to reach their destinations fast, safe and cheap.

Meet Raphael Floirendo, the inventor of Motorela who put the “caretella” (horse-drawn carriage) to history, and usher in a new era of motorized commuting in Cagayan de Oro and other parts of the country. Raphael’s family was originally from northern Luzon before they migrated to Cagayan de Oro, where he finished his secondary education at the Ateneo de Cagayan (He obtained degrees in Business Administration and Agriculture at the Far Eastern University and Araneta University in Caloocan, respectively. The young Raphael fell in love with a lovely doctor, Zenaida, who later became one of the founders of the Cagayan de Oro Medical Center—the oldest private health care institution in Mindanao. Their union was blessed with nine children. Raphael already loved cars at young age, which eventually led him to take a keen interest on automotive. It also helped that his family controlled the automotive market in Northern Mindanao as dealer of Ford.

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He gradually wanted to do something for his community, so he thought of inventing a motorized carriage as an alternative to the Spanish era “caretella”—the basic means of transportation at the time. He initially dabbled with the prime mover concept, using the principle of the horse-drawn carriage: A prime mover that carries a trailer where passengers would be accommodated.
By 1964, “Motorela” (from the words ‘motorized” and “caretella”) was born, and is still being called as such today.

The year after he invented Motorela, Floirendo went to Manila to obtain rights for this original creation. Today his invention remains under Patent 2243 -- the numbers that would forever remind the world that the inventor’s name is Raphael Floirendo.

At first, the inventor said his family made use of “Motorela” to deliver goods and other materials in their business. Then the word spread about a revolutionary motorized carriage that promises decent income for anyone who owns it.

Raphael’s made P500 for his first sale of an assembled Motorela -- a rather princely sum during that time. But he said his first orders did not come from Cagayan de Oro, but from the neighboring towns such as Ozamiz. Kagay-anons, he recalled, had not yet gotten the hang of riding the “caretella.”

From Palawan to Luzon, however, Motorela was an instant hit. To this day, it does surprise Raphael that ‘relas’ are still running the roads of Palawan and many places in Visayas and Luzon.

Later, however, Raphael learned that his invention would not provide him a constant stream of income. Some enterprising Pinoys have improvised on his design, and gladly set up shop to market these new prototypes. The inventor, as a result, only took advantage of his creation for three.

But Raphael has no regrets. He gladly let go and gave up his patent so that others can benefit from his invention.

“Then I left the Motorela business and shifted to making ham, which continues to this day as my bread and butter,” he said when interviewed by this writer Oroham, which itself has become an institution in the local food business.

Now in his prime, at 77, the Motorela inventor said he’s glad to make something out of himself. He continues to be the jolly and kind-hearted person that he was when he willingly shared his invention so that others can also make something out of themselves.