FILIPINO MARTIAL ARTS
As the Filipino Martial Arts are the cornerstone of my system, I have provided you with a brief history of its people, and the evolution of their arts.
The Filipino Martial Arts have evolved out of hundreds of years of battle, vying for control of its over 6500 islands.
The Filipino’s are an intelligent and adaptable people who, as more forces invaded, fought them and studied their styles. In turn, they developed new styles and methods to combat them. Some of the biggest influences may have been from the Sir Vishaya. After colonizing Borneo, they invaded the Philippines. Their superiority in fighting and organization led them to an easy victory over the early Filipinos, many who fled into the mountains.
The Sri Vishayan’s brought with them a more advanced civilization. They introduced new laws, new religion, as well as the written alphabet and the calendar. These new people became the Viscayan people of the Central Philippines.
In the 12th Century, forces from the Madjapahit Empire conquered the Viscayan people spreading their Muslim religion in the process. They settled most heavily in the Southern islands becoming known as the Moros, some of the fiercest fighters in the world.
The Chinese and Spanish have also contributed to their fighting styles. The Manchus invaded China in the 12th Century forcing thousands of Chinese to immigrate to the Philippines. Since they had been trading with them for over hundreds of years, they adapted comfortably to their new lives.
The Spanish conquistadors led by the famous explorer, Ferdinand Magellan discovered the Southern Philippines on March 16th, 1521. He discovered his own demise, as well, at the hands of Raja Lapu Lapu but not before conquering some local islands first. On April 27th, he and 49 other Spanish conquistadors disembarked from their ships to the island of Mactan where they were confronted by over 1,000 islanders, led by Lapu Lapu and armed with iron tipped, fire hardened, bamboo lances. Although they wore the finest armour, the Spanish royalty could provide, they were no match for the fierce Filipinos and Magellan and his men were killed.
In 1543, Ruy de Villalobos, sailing from New Spain (Mexico) landed south of Mindanao and proceeded to name the entire Archipelago, the Philippines after King Philip the II of Spain.
However, it was not until 1865 until the Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, under the rule of King Philip, colonized the Island of Cebu, and finally a foothold was secured. When the Spanish traveled to the Island of Luzon, they were confronted by Kalistas (Kali warriors) whose fighting styles surpassed theirs, but the Spanish using firearms defeated the natives, and outlawed their art of Kali. From that point on, the arts were preserved in native ritual dances called Sinulog that had finales with mock sword battles. Ironically, these were often performed for the entertainment of the Spanish.
Because of the onslaught of invaders from other countries, the Filipinos realized that they needed to teach a system involving weapons training. In those dangerous times, you took some kind of bladed weapon into battle, even if it was only a stick and dagger. If a student required several years of training before he received weapons training, he probable wouldn’t need it then because he would be "dead".
The blade in fact is the heart of the Filipino Martial Arts. Through developing a system that works in combat, they realized no matter what type of offence you launched that it could only come from a limited amount of angles. The Abakadas or angles of attack are the secrets to the system(s). There are 12 angles of attack, as well as, 12 areas of Kali.
12 areas of Kali
This is a complete system including healing arts as well. The common bond is the Abakadas or the angles in which they must be employed.
