{"id":404,"date":"2012-02-26T04:27:50","date_gmt":"2012-02-26T04:27:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iraia.net\/blog\/?p=404"},"modified":"2012-02-26T04:46:36","modified_gmt":"2012-02-26T04:46:36","slug":"romancing-the-sword-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/iraia.net\/blog\/2012\/02\/26\/romancing-the-sword-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Romancing the sword (4)"},"content":{"rendered":"
This is Part 4 of a multi-part essay written for my \u201cPathless Travels\u201d column. It was originally\u00a0published in\u00a0<\/em>Northern Weekly Dispatch, 21 Aug 2005, and which I then reposted a few months later on my defunct blog hosted at Blogspot. Read<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>Part 1<\/a><\/em>\u00a0<\/em>here, Part 2<\/a><\/em>\u00a0<\/em>here, and Part 3<\/a> here.<\/em><\/h5>\n
The year was 2005, and the GMA broadcast network had scored a big hit with the sword-and-sorcery TV series Encantadia. Sword battle movies were on the comeback trail worldwide, from Hollywood to China, and the genre seemed to appeal to Filipino sensitivities. But does it really unlock insights to our own history? From our rich historical military legacy as a people, are we learning anything practical and applicable to our own times?<\/em><\/h5>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Suicide volunteers had their limbs and torsos tightly bound in fibrous cloth or leather strips. Then, on signal, they assaulted the enemy lines with kampilan, kalis or bolo tied with thongs to the wrist of each hand, as they shouted \u201cAllah\u2019u akbar!\u201d or \u201cMabuhay ang Pilipinas!\u201d or simply \u201cTadtad!\u201d Illustration is by Ellsworth Young, from http:\/\/www.gutenberg.org\/files\/22407\/22407-h\/images\/p227.jpg<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I hope that you, most patient readers, have followed me thus far. Maybe you get in a vague way what I\u2019m trying to say but can\u2019t pin it down. Some of you might suspect that this is merely a nostalgia trip that meanders from one hazy idea to the next. So let me try and summarize the whole nebulous thought in one short paragraph:<\/p>\n

War is too important to society to be left only to the professional soldiery. It must be the serious and routine business of the whole citizenry. Let us learn from our rich military legacy, not just through films and books, but by preserving and using what is still of practical use.<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

To be sure, the country has long been implementing a citizens military training program. In the 1960s, our high school military training (then PMT, now CMT), for example, required junior and senior male students to drill on Saturdays. (From the late 1970s onwards, it became a requirement too for female students.) Did that make us capable citizen-soldiers? You bet it didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

We merely trained with mock\u00a0Springfield\u00a0bolt-action rifles of World War I vintage \u2013 in the era of M16s and AK47s! We were taught parade drill basics, starting with the ABC\u2019s of carrying arms \u2013 you know,\u00a0Kanang balikat, \u2018Ta! Handa, \u2018Ta! Parangal, \u2018Ta! Baba, \u2018Ta!<\/em>\u00a0Tikas pahinga, \u2018Ta!<\/em> \u2013 as if those choreographed skills were more helpful to a young citizen-soldier when war did knock on our doorsteps, rather than learning how to actually load, aim and fire a rifle properly.<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

When I joined the cadet officer candidate corps (COCC) in high school, I half-expected to learn a bit about real weapons and tactics, maybe survival skills in bivouac or on visits to the UP ROTC arsenal, where they kept M1 Garand rifles that actually worked, or so I was told. Instead, we spent hours drilling around the school grounds with airy goose steps, fancy rifle routines, tiger looks and snappy salutes. As cadet officer wannabes, we also learned to brandish chrome-plated sabers bought cheap from a military supply store.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, I\u2019m sure you loved to twirl your saber, huh, while you strutted on the parade grounds,\u201d Kabsat Kandu ribbed me with his double-edged hinalong<\/em> wit. \u201cAnd in front of the adoring girls too!\u201d<\/p>\n

Being popular with the girls was a big incentive, I admit. Only, I didn\u2019t get to reap the said benefits, since the School Commandant dropped me from the cadet officers\u2019 roster near the end of our training, because I had joined anti-fascist protests after Marcos suspended the writ of habeas corpus in 1971, fraternized with FTA sloganeers (if you know what I mean), and in the ultimate act of defiance, boycotted the Cadets\u2019 Ball.<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

To be honest, I liked the rigorous training that improved our postures and stamina through plenty of push-ups, squats, and double-time marches around the campus. But I felt I didn\u2019t learn anything that could be of good use in a real war situation.<\/p>\n

Many of my classmates felt that our play-soldiering was a waste of time. Campus protests demanded to scrap PMT or replace it with more useful activities. I was reluctant to drop out, but looking back, it was inevitable.<\/p>\n

I learned more about first aid and jungle survival in three years of Scouting, than in my entire high school PMT plus a short stint with the UP ROTC. The few\u00a0arnis<\/em>\u00a0routines taught by an uncle gave me a better sense of hand-to-hand combat than the fancy sword moves displayed by cadet officers.<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

If the CMT and ROTC authorities had not allowed us to even just hold real guns, they should have at least trained us in martial arts and survival skills, which go back deep into our nation\u2019s past.<\/p>\n

In an Internet interview, Cass Magda, a California-based martial arts teacher and researcher, said he considers Filipino martial arts a most valuable self-defense system. \u201cIt is a weapon-based system that evolved uniquely because of the resistance to the Spanish occupation of the\u00a0Philippines\u00a0for nearly 400 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is said that\u00a0kali<\/em>, our ancestors\u2019 comprehensive martial arts, was taught to all boys as a course with twelve subjects:\u00a0olisi<\/em>\u00a0(single or double stick, sword, axe),\u00a0olisi-baraw<\/em>\u00a0(long and short sticks, sword and dagger),\u00a0baraw-baraw<\/em>\u00a0(double short sticks, daggers), baraw-kamot<\/em>\u00a0(dagger and empty hands),\u00a0 kamot-kamot<\/em>\u00a0or pangamut<\/em>\u00a0(empty hands),\u00a0panuntukan<\/em>\u00a0(native boxing, which includes the use of elbows),\u00a0panadiakan<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0sikaran<\/em>\u00a0(kicking, including kneeing and use of the shin), dumog <\/em>or\u00a0layug<\/em>\u00a0 (grappling, wrestling),\u00a0olisi dalawang kamot<\/em>\u00a0(two-handed stick style),\u00a0sibat <\/em>or\u00a0bangkaw<\/em>\u00a0(use of spear, staff),\u00a0tapon-tapon<\/em>\u00a0(use of hand-thrown darts and projectiles), and\u00a0lipad-lipad<\/em>\u00a0(use of blowguns, bow and arrow).<\/p>\n

Later, Magda says, \u201celements of Spanish swordsmanship were absorbed and modified to fit [our ancestors\u2019] needs for effective countering attacks and used reciprocally against the Spanish and European invaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

Magda notes: \u201cOther martial arts have forms that look pretty, but Filipino martial arts have the understanding of how the weapon structure of combat really works. Once the principles of this structure are understood then anything can fit into the structure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see, the\u00a0Philippines\u00a0was a blade culture. In ancient times everyone carried a blade, by the time you were 14 years old you could be wearing a sword. It meant that you were now respected as an adult in the society. You were capable of preserving or taking a life. You had a great responsibility as a preserver and protector of the society. You became the servant of the people of your tribe.\u201d<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

Historians are agreed that our ancestors had a mastery of weapons and warfare skills, and a deeply-rooted tradition of combat mobilization and mass heroism. This military capacity could have equaled those of foreign invaders, had we been more politically united.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t any superiority of Spanish swords and cannons that conquered most non-Moro areas of the country, but the successful use of \u201cdivide-and-rule\u201d tactics combined with Christian missionary zeal. It wasn\u2019t Krag and Gatling guns that finally defeated the Filipino Revolutionary Army, but the warring and wavering factions that wore down its political-military leadership, which worked in the\u00a0US\u2019s favor.<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

Sifting through Philippine history textbooks, I am frustrated not to find a well-documented answer to a simple question: What happened to the native weapons of our people after they were subdued by the Spanish colonizers?<\/p>\n

There are scattered reports about the conquistadors collecting spears, axes and swords from dead and captured warriors. Were these weapons destroyed, perhaps melted, remolded and forged into musket and cannon barrels and ship fittings? We don\u2019t know exactly.<\/p>\n

Repeatedly, though, we read about expeditions into pagan territories launched by handfuls of Spanish troops armed with muskets, lances and artillery, and accompanied by hundreds of \u201cnative allies\u201d armed with the usual spears, swords and axes.<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

So my guess is that the confiscated bladed weaponry simply changed hands. The colonizers could not quickly impose a general ban on indigenous weapons \u2013 at least during the first two centuries of conquest. While Spain\u2019s control over the major islands remained tenuous, it had to rely on the military strength of \u201cfriendly and pacified tribes\u201d led by their respective warrior-datus to augment the small number of its own troops.<\/p>\n

In such an environment, even after subjugation, our ancestors would have retained and developed their combat skills, formations, tactics, and training methods.<\/p>\n

This is a modest layman\u2019s theory that has to be validated by historical research.<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

I speculate that a major change of Spanish military policy occurred after the British invasion (1762-64), the subsequent near-simultaneous revolts in wide areas of Luzon (e.g. the Palaris, Silang, and Cagayan uprisings), which also saw the height of the Dagohoy revolt and Moro wars. The colonial regime suppressed the private armed groups under the native\u00a0principalia<\/em>, cracked down on native weaponry, and relied on direct native recruitment into the colonial infantry and later into the\u00a0guardia civil<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This would have driven indigenous martial practices underground or into the unpacified territories.<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

In colonized territories, the prohibition gave rise to ostensively harmless activities that the Spanish authorities allowed or even encouraged. For example, in the popular practice of\u00a0moro-moro <\/em>and\u00a0sinulog<\/em>, our forefathers preserved at least the most basic martial skills using mock swords and spears, in the guise of perfecting theatrical or ritualized plays.<\/p>\n

Others, not content with choreography, practiced real combat skills secretly in nearby caves and mountain lairs, using real\u00a0kalis<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0kampilan<\/em>\u00a0(which were banned), as well as shorter utility blades such as\u00a0badang<\/em>,\u00a0itak<\/em>, or\u00a0bolo<\/em>\u00a0(which were allowed as all-purpose tools) and sword-length rattan sticks.<\/p>\n

Later on, towards the end of Spanish rule, the various efforts to preserve indigenous martial arts in covert and overt forms gave rise to more sporty, Spanish-influenced martial arts such as\u00a0arnis de mano<\/em>\u00a0(from \u201charness of hand\u201d),\u00a0eskrima<\/em>\u00a0(from \u201cfencing\u201d or \u201cskirmish\u201d), and\u00a0baston\u00a0<\/em>(from \u201ccane\u201d).<\/p>\n

Thus, our native combat skills continued to evolve from father to son, from master to apprentice, from one generation to the next.<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

Although the new American colonial authorities must have frowned on combative forms of kali and arnis, it is said that other forms limited to sticks and empty hands went mainstream in the 1910s after the remaining pockets of anti-US armed resistance were wiped out.<\/p>\n

The various regional forms began to blend by the 1920s and 1930s, as landless Luzon and Visayas farmers resettled in Mindanao, and even spread overseas as Filipino migrant workers trooped to farms and canneries in California and Hawaii.<\/p>\n

But we are getting much ahead of our story.<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

In the wide uncolonized areas of Mindanao and the Cordillera, the old warrior traditions continued in full throughout the Spanish era, despite (or probably because of) repeated Spanish punitive expeditions into their tribal territories.<\/p>\n

Unlike many Native American tribes who became expert horseback gunfighters and thus fought tit-for-tat with the highly mobile US Cavalry, the Moro and Igorot resistance fighters continued to rely on indigenous arms even during the 19th century, when the rifle was already a common weapon that they could have seized in battle or bought from gunrunners. Perhaps they found it unwieldy in a jungle ambush, perhaps they couldn\u2019t solve the problem of replenishing ammunition; further research is needed on this.<\/p>\n

At any rate, they too were eventually marginalized. US imperialist troops, after defeating the main contingents of the Filipino revolutionary army at the start of the 20th century, proceeded to conquer the Moro, Igorot, and other peoples. The ban on indigenous weapons became more thorough and strict. Confiscated swords, spears, daggers and axes eventually turned up in public museums and private collections.<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

But the native warriors fought hard, and died hard. Whether it was a matter of indigenous preference or simply due to lack of firearms and bullets, Moro warriors and other native fighters adopted do-or-die tactics that unnerved Spanish troops and later US troops. There was, for example, the legendary sword assault by suicide warriors, variously known as\u00a0juramentados<\/em>, pulahans<\/em>, or\u00a0tadtads<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Suicide volunteers had their limbs and torsos tightly bound in fibrous cloth or leather strips. Then, on signal, they assaulted the enemy lines with kampilan, kalis or bolo tied with thongs to the wrist of each hand, as they shouted\u00a0\u201cAllah\u2019u akbar!\u201d<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0\u201cMabuhay ang Pilipinas!\u201d<\/em>\u00a0or simply\u00a0\u201cTadtad!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The wrappings would not stop a hail of Krag bullets, but they deadened the impact and slowed down blood flow. This enabled most attackers to reach enemy lines, perhaps mortally wounded but still with enough strength to take a dozen or so unfortunate souls with them on the way to martyrs\u2019 heaven.<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

Such suicide attacks struck terror in the hearts of the bravest American soldiers. That is, until some wise guy inventor named Samuel Colt invented a magazine-loading semi-auto pistol called the Colt caliber 45. The Colt .45 had tremendous stopping power exceeded only by machine guns of that same period, and which proved crucial in close-quarters combat.<\/p>\n

Modern automatic firearms eventually decimated the kalis-wielding juramentado<\/em> rebels. But they did not kill the Filipino faith in the native sword. As late as World War II, the armed strength of guerrilla units in Northern Luzon were doubled or tripled by so-called bolo battalions, even if much of their work was limited to defensive works, intelligence, and logistics.<\/p>\n

The last Filipino samurais went down to their glorious deaths when the\u00a0Lapiang Malaya\u00a0<\/em>quasi-religious rebels were mowed down with M16 automatic fire by Metrocom troopers at the Manila-Pasay boundary on Taft Avenue in 1967. After the LM massacre, the next generation of rebels throughout the land decided to finally retire their swords and fight back with their own M16s, AK47s and FALs. (Read Dennis Villegas’ “You shall be as gods: the enigma of anting-anting”<\/a> for a detailed account of the Lapiang Malaya massacre.)<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

\u201cOh no, no, no, please! Don\u2019t write off Filipino martial arts just yet,\u201d blurted Kabsat Kandu. \u201cWe arnis enthusiasts will yet have a role to play in the next revolt.\u201d Hmm. Sometimes my pesky friend has some interesting notions up his sleeve.<\/p>\n

True, we are now on the verge of another People Power revolt, and most analysts say it won\u2019t succeed unless backed by the AFP and PNP. I say, our people should not wait for the AFP and PNP to move.<\/p>\n

If war is too important to society to be left to the professional soldiery, then more so in the case of politics \u2013 especially People Power politics. I say, our people should be out there in the streets in their hundreds of thousands and millions to oust an illegitimate regime.<\/p>\n

\u201cI say, it\u2019s time for Oust-GMA rallyists to fit their placards and streamers with sturdy rattan and bamboo handles,\u201d Kabsat Kandu exclaimed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs that an appeal to arms?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou bet it is,\u201d he glowered. #<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is Part 4 of a multi-part essay written for my \u201cPathless Travels\u201d column. It was originally\u00a0published in\u00a0Northern Weekly Dispatch, 21 Aug 2005, and which I then reposted a few months later on my defunct blog hosted at Blogspot. Read\u00a0Part 1\u00a0here, Part 2\u00a0here, and Part 3 here. The year was 2005, and the GMA broadcast … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Romancing the sword (4)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,63,4,69,8,5],"tags":[105,85,98,99,101],"class_list":["post-404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-education","category-history","category-military","category-personal","category-politics","tag-arnis","tag-filipino","tag-film","tag-sword","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/iraia.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/iraia.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/iraia.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iraia.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iraia.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/iraia.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":407,"href":"http:\/\/iraia.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404\/revisions\/407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/iraia.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iraia.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iraia.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}