Mendoza: Gawilan a pleasant surprise in Motor Show

ERNIE Gawilan is Toyota’s stunning gift to the ongoing Tokyo Motor Show.

In an admirable bid to add a human interest twist to the 46th edition of the world’s most attended exhibition of concept cars here at Big Sight, Toyota Motors Asia-Pacific (TMAP) unwrapped Gawilan and three other Paralympians with the poignant theme, “Start Your Impossible.”

Gawilan is a 28-year-old Filipino para-swimmer with multiple global victories across his name despite being hobbled by grave physical deformities at birth.

He was presented in a lavish sit-down dinner affair before more than 300 motoring journalists from some 50 countries covering the Tokyo Motor Show as TMAP, for once, took the bold step of veering away from the usual by brandishing its commitment to support our world’s handicapped in their desire for excellence amid adversities.

Aside from Gawilan, TMAP has also presented on stage a Pakistani karate world beater, a wheelchair-bound Singaporean swimmer and a world-class Paralympian long-jumper from Malaysia with brain disorder.

Like our very own Gawilan, each of his fellow Paralympians had also earned Toyota’s admiration and robust support of their courage to overcome their handicaps.

But Gawilan stands out as his story is downright heart-melting.

He was from womb to tomb as his mother, while conceiving him, had tried to abort him not just once but twice.

“My own grandfather told me about it,” Gawilan said to me here in Tagalog. “My mother fell in love with another man and I was the result of their love.”

Fearing reprisal from her husband, Gawilan’s mother took abortion pills in wild abandon—all in vain.

At birth, Ernie’s legs and left arm were reed-thin; his shrunken left hand had only three short fingers.

Ernie was adopted by his grandfather and, five months after he was born, his mother died of cholera.

Before he turned five years old, Ernie’s father died of tuberculosis.

At 12, Ernie began swimming at sea in Samal, Davao—upon the instigation of his grandfather.

“If not for my grandpa, I would not know where I’d be today,” he said. (To be continued.)

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