x.php

<?php

namespace Some;

use Phalcon\DI,
    Phalcon\Db\Column,
    Phalcon\Mvc\Model,
    Phalcon\Events\Manager as EventsManager,
    Phalcon\Db\Adapter\Pdo\MySQL as Connection,
    Phalcon\Db\Dialect\MySQL as SqlDialect,
    Phalcon\Mvc\Model\Manager as ModelsManager,
    Phalcon\Mvc\Model\Metadata\Memory as ModelsMetaData;

$eventsManager = new EventsManager();

$di = new DI();

$dialect = new SqlDialect();

$dialect->registerCustomFunction('MATCH', function($dialect, $expression) {
    return  $dialect->getSqlExpression($expression['arguments'][0]) .
            " REGEXP " .
            $dialect->getSqlExpression($expression['arguments'][1]);
});

$dialect->registerCustomFunction('NOT_MATCH', function($dialect, $expression) {
    return  $dialect->getSqlExpression($expression['arguments'][0]) .
            " NOT REGEXP " .
            $dialect->getSqlExpression($expression['arguments'][1]);
});

$connection = new Connection(array(
    "host"          => "localhost",
    "username"      => "root",
    "password"      => "secret",
    "dbname"        => "phalcon_test",
    "dialectClass"  => $dialect
));

$connection->setEventsManager($eventsManager);

$eventsManager->attach('db',
    function ($event, $connection) {
        switch ($event->getType()) {
            case 'beforeQuery':
                echo $connection->getSqlStatement(), "\n";
                break;
        }
    }
);

$modelsManager = new ModelsManager();
$modelsManager->setDi($di);

$di['db'] = $connection;
$di['modelsManager'] = $modelsManager;
$di['modelsMetadata'] = new ModelsMetadata();

class Robots extends Model
{

}

$phql = "SELECT * FROM Some\Robots WHERE MATCH(name, '^[A-Z]') OR NOT_MATCH(name, 'a')";
$robots = $modelsManager->executeQuery($phql);