History

The fighting arts have been a prominent part of Philippine history. From the beginning, Filipinos have defended their homes and villages with the fighting skills passed from generation to generation. In some ways, elements of these arts and skills still survive in many parts of the nation. Influenced by the movies and TV, most people have looked to other Asian martial systems for self-defence training. Until recently, few people, inside and outside of the Philippines, realized that the indigenous fighting arts of the Philippines represent some of the most effective hand-to-hand and bladed fighting methods in the world today.

Kali is the mother art of the modern Filipino Martial Arts. Record from the Malay Sri-Vishaya Empire dating to the 8th century A.D. refer to Kali as the art of the Philippines. According to historians, the Ten Datus of Borneo brought there fighting methods to the Island of Panay. Here, basic reading, writing and Kali were taught in the schools. Due to the loss of written records, the exact techniques of Kali remain a mystery today although elements of Kali remain alive in the foundation of today's Filipino Martial Arts.

The Spanish began a 400 year occupation of the islands late in the 16th century. To suppress opposition to their rule, the Spanish banned the teaching of Kali. With bladed weapons declared illegal by the Spaniards, Philippine fighters switched to wooden hardwood sticks. These sticks were said to be so hard that they could break a sword blade with one blow. Before long they had become so accomplished with their sticks, they centred entire fighting systems around stick fighting alone. Much the same way as Okinawa, where bladed weapons were forbidden, stick fighting developed to as an advanced martial skill, unseen in other Asian arts. Elements of the art were hidden in folk plays and native dance. However, over time, Spanish fencing methods were blended into the indigenous fighting framework. Under Spanish influence, the native art became known as eskrima, estocada, arnis de mano or arnis.

The Filipino martial arts assume different names in different regions. In the Manila area, the art is known as Arnis or Pananandata, in Pangasinan as Kalirongan, in the Ilocos region of Luzon as Kabaro-an, and in the Visayas as Eskrima.

Arnis historians have cited as many as 200 systems or styles of Arnis-Eskrima-Kali. Names describing the range of fighting include Largo (long-distance), Medio (medium-range) and Corto or Serrada (close, in-fighting). Names based on movement include Abaniko (fanning), Palis-Palis (go with the force), Sunkiti (thrusting), Ocho-Ocho (figure eight) and Lastico (snapping). Systems can be called by the choice of weapon, e.g. solo baston (single cane), doble baston or sinawali (double cane), espada y daga (sword and dagger), mano-mano or de kadina (empty-hands).

Fortunately, there have been a few men who have come forward to pass on their Filipino fighting arts to the global martial arts community. One of the most prominent and innovative of these men is Grandmaster Ernesto A.Presas, founder of Kombatan.

After years of study under his father, Jose Presas, a well known stickfighter in his own right, Grandmaster Ernesto Presas was among first to modernize the classical Filipino systems to include traps, disarms, takedowns, grappling and translate the movements into a formidable weapon (kali or arnis), hand-to-hand (mano-mano) and grappling (dumog) fighting system called Filipino Kombatan.