Tournaments - FMA Informative

CC: I’ll spar with him tomorrow during the seminar. I spar a lot at least two to four hours
a day to keep in shape. A lot of guys who drop out of eskrima are the ones who’re scared
to fight. So those who truly become experts and move up are the real fighters. There’s no
place in eskrima for people who don’t fight.
TM: Talking about sparring, did you design the armor Manoy?
CC: I conceptualized the sparring rules and the gear, but the armor design was done by
my nephew Dionie.
TM: We’ve gone all around Cebu province and met a lot of the old-timers in eskrima.
One particular person from the town of Balamban who died three years ago is Manoy
Julian Goc-ong. He said he knew you personally.
CC: Yes Goc-ong, he was one of my soldiers during the last war. There are so many
good eskrimadors all over Cebu. I always tell my foreign students to come to Cebu to
learn eskrima, because this is where it all started.
TM: I also heard about the controversy over the much-ballyhooed duel in Balamban
where you swept a man down without using both hands as leverage. What can you say
about that?
CC: Yes, I knocked him down twice. Yes I can always do that sweep over and over
again. I don’t care what my detractors say, they probably don’t know what combat is all
about.
TM: By the way Manoy, I’m writing a book with Dr. Ned Nepangue that is a
comprehensive chronicle of our assertions on the origins of eskrima, it might interest you
to know that the one who edited the book for us is the daughter of Jess Vestil - Jane Vestil
Melendez the one you took in as a student to reciprocate the late Jess Vestil. (Jess Vestil
edited Cacoy Canete’s first book on eskrima).
CC: Yes, yes, I remember. I miss Jess Vestil; he was very dear and close to me. I’m
actually planning to republish that book again. Well, it’s good that her daughter has
helped you out on that book.
TM: I read somewhere that you were also close to the late pianist and composer Manny
Cabase? Manny and my father were also very close friends.
CC: Oh, Manny, he was actually a Balintawak fighter, I once challenged him to spar with
me using his Balintawak (laughs out loud), but you know Manny wasn’t really a born
fighter, you could see his smooth delicate hands, obviously not designed for fighting.
TM: Well, I guess those hands were made for playing the piano.
CC: Exactly! He was a good fellow.
TM: Have you heard of Liloy Cabagnot of Bohol, I heard he once trained in Doce
Pares?
CC: Yes, the name sounds familiar.