In the global field of Martial Arts, the Japanese boast of their Karatedo, Judo, Sumo, Samurai and Kendo. The Koreans have their Taekwondo. The Chinese, their Kung Gu. The Thais have their Muay Thai kickboxing. By the same token, the Filipinos are and must be identified globally with Arnis.

 According to Engineer Jose Dion Diaz, president and founder of Philippine Indigenous Games and sports savers (PIGSSAI), thousands of arnis clubs abounds not only in the country but around the world as well. From United States, Australia, Africa, Asia, Europe, Canada to New Zealand, foreign arnis practitioners value the art with so much respect and importance becoming an institution and a noble sport.

Diaz, also the deputy manager for infrastructure of the Philippine Tourism Authority; narrated to DP that one of the early practitioners of Arnis was Rajah Lapu-Lapu. “He is our first national hero, remember?”

 He described the rajah as a bold and handsome warrior king; chieftain of Mactan in the 16^th century “Visayas”.

 Lapu-Lapu was a master in the six-sword slashing manoeuvres of the Arnis called pangamut coupled with the ancient wrestling art of the dumog and with his lighting skills as an arnisador, Lapu-Lapu fought the Spanish conquistador, Ferdinand Magellan in the Battle of Mactan in 1521.

 Although “arnis” was banned during the Spanish times, because the Spaniards were fearful that the art could be used in rebellion, they put a stop to it, by claiming the Filipinos took so much time practicing arnis that they neglected the fields and other chores.

“So scared were the Spaniards that they even required the Filipino males to wear their shirt transparent to ascertain that no bladed objects were tacked or hidden in their waists.” Diaz told DP.

Today, the game Arnis is played with much freedom. Diaz as its president and founder, has recreated the game of “arnis” to complete the science in self-defense fought by weapons which include the rattan stick for beginners or fight like a count Zorro with blades and sword for the highly-skilled.

 Diaz added that their group is conducting free demonstration and exhibition of arnis combined with different martial arts every Sunday at Luneta Park, at the back of Department of Tourism (DOT) building, from 6 to 9 pm.

 Diaz also known as the Guru by the followers of Arnis, explained that this is his organization’s contribution to the country’s cultural drive.

 He says they are batting for the revival of native games, particularly arnis, not only as a tourism product but also a game for sports competition that would eventually be recognized as a World Olympic sport.

 Even the coach of Philippine Arnis Team, Raffy Montalbo believes that is the government would give all their support in this indigenous sport the country could get more prestige around the world.

 “Arnis is world-class art, a stylish and regal sport, a cultural pride and above all, a true Filipino identity. Filipinos should support this sport because this is ours!”

 The Philippine Arnis Team will be competing for the coming South East Asian (SEA) Games, which the country hosts on December.

 “Our Target is the over-all championship. There are six gold medals at stake in the Sea Games and we believe we might take all the gold medals,” Coach Montalbo confidently says.

 The team is currently on intense training to make sure they could take home the bacon. Their close rivals for the championship are our neighboring countries like Vietnam and Thailand, whom coach believed had mastered our native game.

 Engineer Diaz further said that world abounds with martial arts “masters”. But, a relatively large number of these individuals have only a theoretical understanding of the techniques that comprise the arts. Moreover, many have not had the opportunity to employ their skills in an actual fight.

 Diaz said since the Philippines is an archipelago, which is in constant turmoil, martial arts practitioners are able to maintain their practical experience in the arts. A good example, he said, was the World War II and before that the Filipino-American War when practice in the arts was done laboriously and with diligence, especially in the “patayan” or death-matches.

 The arnis guru describes Arnis as dynamic and reminiscent of the classical espada y daga or (sword and dagger); baston y daga (stick and dagger); solo baston (single stick), “mano-mano” (empty hands) and the bayonet.

 The arnis is predominated by the heavy cutting and whirling strokes; combined by the movements of footwork, encompassing the side-steps; pendulum steps, weaving and pivotal movements.

Diaz has come up with three methods for the person in an empty-hand confrontation faced by a weapon-wielding opponent. There are: lightning disarming; blasting disarming and self-rebounding disarming.

“All these methods will successfully disarm an opponent and injure him in the process,” Diaz concluded.

Aside from his arnis, Diaz explains that PIGSSAI wants to preserve, revive, enhance and promote all Filipino indigenous games and sports, particularly Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) and the traditional Filipino Native Games (FNG) as part of the cultural heritage.

FMAs are our ancestor’s cultural legacy in the field of self-defense techniques and weapons fighting system that have been existing in the country long before the Spaniards came to shore. Some of these are arnis, the sikaran art of kickfighting, the dumog and pambuno styles of traditional wrestling, the hand and foot combat of Mindanao silat and kuntaw, among others.

 FNGs on the other hand are those indigenous traditional native games most children, even adults play like the board game of drama; the street games of patintero and piko; the fiesta games of basag palayok, pabitin and palo sebo; the object games of holen, trumpo and yoyo; and the original game of sungka. DP