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Originally Published in WorldBlackBelt, 2004 Just like the other martial arts, Filipino martial arts (FMA) owes its success to many warriors, who while mere mortals have taken on epic proportions, from historical heroes (like Lapu-lapu, slayer of Ferdinand Magellan) to legendary fighters (like the death-match fighters) to founders of FMA systems. These founders created not just styles but systems, with a cohesive body of techniques, terminology, concepts and fighting philosophy, forged in the crucible of combat. The true test of its enduring value would surface at the death or passing of its founder, whether its efficacy, usefulness or popularity would survive the test of strife, time and vagaries of fortune. While some of these systems may be described as eclectic, its original body of knowledge remains mostly intact and identifiable, albeit modified, personalized, or indigenized by generations of inheritors and successors. In a previous article, I profiled the living legends of Filipino Martial Arts. In this article, we will meet the FMA legends who have passed and left their legacv with the FMA world. These are the grandmasters who have pioneered the formation of FMA systems, and by their blood, sweat, cuts, and bruises have tested their systems in the tournament ring, battlefields and mean streets, and passed them on to willing and able successors. I will also try to identify the current inheritors or senior practitioners of the system. The parenthesis indicates where the system was originally founded.
Leo Giron - Bahala Na Eskrima (USA) Prof. Remy Amador Presas - Modern Arnis (Philippines)
Angel Cabales - Cabales Serrada Eskrima (USA
While Angel Cabales’s name will forever be identified with the spread of FMA in the US, he learned his FMA in the Philippines as a student and fighter for Felicisimo Dizon, one of the most feared fighters of his times. In 1966, Cabales opened the Cabales Escrima Academy in Stockton, California. From that school, he taught numerous students, some of whom have gone on to found their own styles, like Mike Inay, Rene Latosa and Graciella Casillas. Since his death, his designated successor, son Vincent Cabales, has ably continued to teach at the Cabales Escrima Academy.
Antonio “Tatang” Ilustrisimo - Kali Ilustrisimo (Philippines)
Conrado Tortal - Pekiti-Tirsia Kali (Philippines) Edgar Sulite – Lameco Eskrima (Philippines)
Edgar Sulite started his FMA training with the family style rather reluctantly, but eventually managed to train with the best of the FMA grandmasters around at that time, both in the Visayas and later on in Manila. He classified the styles he learned into their respective ranges, from long (largo) to medium (medio) to short (corto), and came up with the name of his system, an acronym of the ranges. Edgar’s life after immigrating to the U.S. was like a shooting star, meteoric but short-lived. In April of 1997, Edgar Sulite was felled by a stroke while on a trip to the Philippines, at the young age of thirty-nine. The “keepers of the flame” are his Bakbakan brothers Reynaldo S. Galang and Christopher Ricketts. Current senior instructors include Dino Flores, Hospecio “Bud” Balani, Jr., Leonard Trigg, Felix Valencia, Ron Balicki, Steve Grody and Phil Rapagna in the U.S.
Floro Villabrille - Villabrille Kali System (USA)
This system was forged in the crucible of numerous death matches fought and won in the Philippines and Hawaii by its founder, Grandmaster Floro Villabrille. Shortly after his last match in Hawaii in 1948, Villabrille started teaching his system. His long-time student and designated successor, Ben Largusa, systematized Villabrille’s techniques. This system is now known as the “Villabrille-Largusa Kali System.” Ben Largusa is now in semi-retirement in Hawaii, but trains occasionally with his own designated successor, Tuhan Mel Lopez in the U.S.
Venancio “Anciong” Bacon - Balintawak Eskrima (Philippines)
Venancio “Anciong” Bacon organized the Labangon Fencing Club in Cebu, Philippines, later changed the name to the “Doce Pares Club,” then left the organization to form yet another school, the “Balintawak Self-Defense Club.” The “Balintawak” style developed into a formidable, close-fighting combat system. The foremost Grandmaster in Balintawak today is Guillermo “Bobby” Taboada, , who was a direct student of “Anciong” Bacon as well as “Balintawak” senior instructors Teofilo Velez, Attorney Jose V. Villasin and Tinong Ibanez . Bobby Taboada currently lives and teaches in North Carolina, USA, and his style enjoys a huge popularity in the U.S.
Teodoro Saavedra, Lorenzo Saavedra, Eulogio Canete, et. al., - Doce Pares (Philippines) Benjamin Luna Lema - Lightning Scientific Arnis (Philippines)
This is an excellent, hard-hitting system founded by fighter, body-builder and arnisador, Benjamin Luna Lema, affectionately called “Mang Ben.” Unfortunately, the founder as well as the senior instructor of this system, Master Elmer Ybanez who had immigrated and was teaching in the U.S., passed away recently within a year of each other, “Mang Ben” in 2003 and Elmer Ybanez in March, 2004. The known senior practitioners in the Philippines include Bert Labaniego, Nathan Dominguez, Felipe “Bot” Jocano, Manolo Luis C. del Rosario and Joshua Medroso, who now call their style “Lema Scientific Kali Arnis System” (LESKAS). Just recently at Myrlino Hufana’s Expo and Laban Laro at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas, the senior students of Master Elmer Ybanez out of Seattle, WA gave an impressive team demonstration in honor of Master Elmer. They were Ryan Greene, Chris Turla, Joe Gabriel and Bob Park. This is by no means a complete list of all the founders and systems created in FMA. Some of them go back beyond recorded history. Some of them preferred the comfort of obscurity and anonymity. Some of them are still being discovered. Other founders include Grandmasters Timoteo Maranga, Jose D. Caballero, Florendo Visitacion, Filemon Caburnay and many others who have passed on. But not to worry. Chances are, they will be featured soon in articles to come.
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Leovigildo “Leo” Giron is one of three grandmasters credited with bringing FMA to the fore in the United States (the other two being Angel Cabales and Ben Largusa). His FMA training started with his relatives in Pangasinan, Philippines, continued with the “manongs” of California after he immigrated to the U.S., and was put to the test in hand-to-hand, bladed combat with the Japanese in World War II after he was shipped back to the Philippines by the U.S. Army. The name of his school “Bahala Na” (a fatalistic Filipino expression meaning “come what may”) was derived from the slogan of his signal battalion. His students include Dan Inosanto, Richard Bustillo and Ted LucayLucay, founders of their own styles. Upon his death, succession passed to his senior student and designated inheritor, Master Antonio “Tony” Somera.
Known as the Founding Father of Modern Arnis both in the Philippines and U.S., Prof. Presas spent most of his adult life promoting an art he loved, the last three decades in the U.S. His eclectic system, which included elements from major systems by Grandmasters Rodolfo Moncal, Venancio “Anciong” Bacon and others, was meant to make the brutal yet effective art more systematized and palatable to the practitioner. Current senior masters in Modern Arnis include Rene Tongson, Roberto “Berting” Presas (Remy’s brother), Cristino Vasquez and Samuel Dulay in the Philippines; Godofredo “Godo” Fajardo in Saudi Arabia; Dan Anderson, Myrlino Hufana and the children of Prof. Presas in the US; Jeff Delaney in Canada, Galo “Jun” Matagay in Italy, Edessa Ramos in Switzerland, and Dieter Knuttel in Germany.
Antonio “Tatang” Ilustrisimo, founder of the system that bears his name, “Kali Ilustrisimo,” also correctly called “Kalis Ilustrisimo,” is one of the more colorful figures in the annals of FMA. He has been the protagonist in numerous death-matches, lethal street confrontations and serious brushes with the law. His fame as well as his system has now spread far and wide over the globe. Current grandmasters in the system include Reynaldo S. Galang and John Jacobo in the U.S., and Christopher “Topher” Ricketts and Antonio “Tony” Diego in the Philippines.
