Sticks and Stones (Ivory Actually)

July 12, 2000

IT MUST be the water. Or is it the weather? For an archipelago of several thousands of islands, more notorious than famous for a thousand more reasons (2,000 pairs of shoes included) the Philippines can at least take great exclusive pride on its arnisadors (eskrima or kali fighters, take your pick) and billiards players (artists or geniuses, more accurately).

The great sword/stickfighters: Cebuanos Anciong Bacon, Angel Cabales, Jose Caballero, Ciriaco and Filemon Cañete, Antonio Ilustrisimo, Teodoro Saavedra (surely I missed many great eskrimadores); and from other regions: Felicisimo Dizon, Leo Gaje, Islao Romo and Remy Presas, have carved their names in the annals of legend and some even on the bodies of their opponents. They have spread the fame of arnis worldwide and have added the indigenous Filipino style into the pantheon of great martial arts, which includes kung fu, judo, karate, pentjak silat, taekwando and muay Thai.

Now come the less violent stick wizards: Efren “Bata” Reyes, Amang Parica, Francisco “Django” Bustamante, Leonardo “Dodong” Andam, Rodolfo “Boy Samson” Luat, Pasil boy Warren Kiamco and Filipino-Canadian Alex “The Lion” Pagulayan. Cebuano ace Victor “Paklay” Quijano, in semi-retirement, has been largely unrecognized and reportedly wasted on alcohol.

Our pool players may have lost out in the World Pool Championship in Cardiff, Wales, but you can bet your last inflation-ridden peso that won’t happen in the other stick games of the World Eskrima Kali Federation (Wekaf) Championships next month in Cebu and Mandaue.

Filipinos (Cebuanos in particular) are not known to be maru/marama for nothing. The talent is not incompatible with fighting skills. The constant need to fight throughout our country’s history has created the penchant for upmanship, thus the maru culture. Smaller in stature than most invaders, especially the European variety, the Pinoy as a result has found a way to level the playing field. Shrewd has paid dividends. Sundang and pinuti-wielding World War II veterans have bragged that the Japanese officers and their katana (samurai sword, to the uninitiated) were no match for them. Perhaps they should have challenged the Imperial Army to a bladed weapon contest – winner take all the Philippine islands – and then our parents and grandparents wouldn’t have suffered under the yoke of the Nipponese invaders.

The Filipino has a talent for things involved with sticks. That’s an understatement of course. Stickfighting and cues are only the most obvious. Now Cebu and Mandaue will host still another “world” arnis tournament. At the risk of opening old wounds associated with allegations of ass-kissing and game fixing, you can bet your last matchstick that the Philippine team will again retain the overall title, no sweat.

If another country (the United States, perhaps, whose denizens also have a love affair with sticks: baseball, golf and baton twirling) takes RP’s title, it will only prove that we are gracious, if not, badly-prepared hosts.

‘RIGGED.’ Efren “Bata” Reyes losing despite being “safely” ahead by six racks (8-2) over Steve “The Nugget” Davis in a race-to-9 match, have made some fans suspect something fishy. How do you spell g-a-m-e-f-i-x-i-n-g? Baligya. Hard to prove but billiards in the dingy pool halls of the Philippines like professional boxing in the smoke-filled arenas in the era of the American mafiosis have been associated with the sinister.

With last year’s Cardiff tournament triumph, billiards now gets the attention of the Pinoy politicos. Cash incentive this and cash incentive that. “Everybody loves a winner.” The Cebu Gems should understand that. The Puyat team to Cardiff may have lost out on the big money and the honor. But this shouldn’t stop Filipinos from loving the “sport.” If chess and ballroom dancing qualify as sport, there’s no reason billiards shouldn’t. It’s on ESPN, right?

In the early to mid-80s, the traditional/routinary gang rumbles among teenagers at the Fuente Osmeña oval ended because of the sudden popularity of ersatz billiard games that used marbles and tables measuring 2’x1’ ¾” to 3’ ¾”'x2”. Mini cue sticks thus replaced Indian pana and knives.

If only for this reason, parents shouldn’t be so hard on their truant children who spend more time in the pool halls than the classroom. If Bata Reyes and Erap Estrada could make it big, so can you.