Filipino Classical Weapons of Self Protection
Filipino Classical Weapons
of Self Protection
While cleaning my
collection of wooden and rattan-made weapons of self-defense, the pamalo,
balila, garrote, and the baston; I decided to write an
essay with regard to these weapons of self-defense typically used then by
older generations.
The Civilian Weapons
Typical jeepney drivers, usually carry a rattan stick or sometimes a metal pipe used for measuring the level of the fuel inside the tank, and for self-protection as well. For them, this is the best easy-to-access weapon in case of brawling against a bad guy, against multiple attackers, and against a knife-wielding attacker. I really know this because I grow up in Sta. Cruz Manila. I watched many street brawls with guys or drivers having participated in street fights during the 70s and 80s.
The word baston just came into my vocabulary when I was introduced by my brother to his friend who was a master of Arnis, that is GM Ernesto A. Presas, our neighbor. Even when my brothers played a sort of fencing with sticks when I was younger, they call it pamalo while practicing their escrima as taught by my demised father who was a guerilla fighter in Leyte during World War 2.
What I know about baston is the walking stick or tungkod. But it is better to call it baston, because we were practicing modern arnis with solo baston (single stick) and doble baston (two sticks).
The balila, a flat wooden sword shape typically made from kamagong (black ironwood) or from bahi (hardwood of the anahaw palm tree). Typically carried by barangay tanod (community police) during their duty. Carried by those guys with their hand or sometimes tucked behind their shirt. Other calls it as brokil.
I searched for the meaning of brokil, it can’t be the broquil because it refers to the broccoli vegetable. And probably from the word broquel which refers to a buckler. But why buckler, it is a small rounded shield?
The garrote, is any arm-length or longer type of weapon that is knotted at one end. Typically come from the end part of rattan or any hardwood branch with its molded and rounded end. During my tour as part of my work with the Saudi royal family, I found many types of this in Morocco, Egypt, Kenya, and even in rural areas of England and Spain. In Spain they called it garrotazo, while in England and among the Irish, they call it as cudgel or shillelagh.
Nowadays, it is hard to find Filipinos using brokil and garrote. I personally saw barangay tanod carrying ballila in the provinces of Ilocos, Nueva Ecija, Cavite, and from among the Batangueno blanket street peddlers during the 70s. And from Cagayan, I saw inside my grandmother’s old house a kind of garrote, that was used for “pamalukan” or for hitting somebody. We routinely visit our mother’s birthplace, in Camalanuigan Cagayan during the 70s to visit our relatives and to manage their farmland before.
The Itak or bolo, is a typical everyday carry among farmers in the rural areas. When I visited Camarines in Bicol when I was a college student just on vacation with my classmate, a typical mountain farmer carrying two blades, the short one for farming use, while the long and thin one for “panggamit,” means for self-protection.
Itak and balaraw or sundang (knife) are definitely illegal to carry within Manila. For commoners, those guys carrying sundang or balisong (folded knives made from Batangas) were stigmatized as bad guys or criminals. It was in the late 80s that some FMA groups in Manila incorporated the use of blades in their repertoire. Even Moro blades were incorporated, even though they don’t know how to use them, just trying to use it with the mechanics of stick-wielding.
I asked some seniors in the group why using the Moro blades and motif, and they replied that the Moros are a symbol of unconquered warriors that arnis/escrima practitioners must use as a symbol. Contradicting the history that what we learned from the Spanish colonialists was the one we used to fight those Moros. Later on, from my brothers from the south I realized that there was no stick fighting system among the Moros, but they have the Silat-Kuntaw in which typically the training started with empty hands and then into the use of their blades, the barung, and the kalis or kris.
The baston
or walking cane, also called as tungkod among Tagalog places. I met an old guy from Bulacan, and he used to carry Baston not just for
orthopedic function but also for self-protection he said. He has also a
collection of cane-swords, a walking stick with a concealed blade inside the
shaft of the stick.
Nowadays, the younger
generation from among these places, don’t even know these things. Quite simply,
because Filipinos are not that conscious about their family martial background
and history, and because of the advent of foreign sports and martial arts, and
even the contemporary arnis/escrima have its fabricated and modernized thinking
about the art itself that is not akin to historical truth.
Inter-changeability of the
Words
Filipino languages are so
dynamic, it can be changed in just a few years. The word arnis, escrima,
garrote, baston is used to refer to the use of a stick as a weapon of
self-defense or as a type of stick-fighting sport.
Here are some of the common
word expressions used by older generations to refer to this topic:
Pamalukan – to hit with a stick
or something that is with blunt weapons. A word I heard from among the people
of Cagayan, particularly my grandmother who was a Cagayanes-Spanish Mestiza. I
still remember what she said to me to hit the dog, “pamalukan mo ti kitoh,”
which he means to hit the bad dog in the street.
Paluin – common
expression in Tagalog areas, which means to hit with a club.
Garrotehin – I heard this
among the Bicolanos which they mean to hit with a stick.
Bastonin – which means to
hit with baston (a stick). That is why we have the word bastonero in the
prison ward, this guy is the one tasked to punish anybody who unlawfully acted
in the prison. Or the one who will takal (welcome hit) to those newly entered the prison.
Fraylehin – also used in
Bicol and Quezon before, which means to hit or to punish somebody with a
stick. Fraile is referring to the friars during the Spanish colonial period,
which usually punished somebody with a stick, as told by older folks.
Arnisin - this is a contemporary expression among
Tagalog people who have watched and/or have a background in the practice of
arnis/escrima. Arnisin which means to hit with arnis stick.
Sometimes, those are called based on what material it was made. Like, “pakiabot mo nga yun kamagong ko dyan”, which means “please give to me my stick made of ironwood.”
Generally, these words are amalgamated from the mixed of Spanish words with local semantics. Martial art as part of the socio-cultural aspect of a society is always subjected into a sort of social adaptation based on the existing technology, resources, trends and fashion, and the dominant foreign influences.
Where is the Sword
The word kalis, was used. This Malayan word that refers to the sword or the use of a sword was included in their curriculum. Even the inclusion of Moro swords, like the barung, kris, and kampilan were used and even in their logos.
Some farm blades were incorporated to be used in the repertoire. But the question is, do they really know how to use them, and if they really have a curriculum using those weapons including the Cordilleran kala-sag (shield). From the comments of those ethnic groups that their fighting systems are not part of Filipino Martial Arts because of historical differences, I think it is better to leave it to them. Why not try to explore real and historical blades used by the Filipino revolutionaries in the late 19th century, such as the Luzon Matulis, Filipino Sable, San Bartolome, Tagalog Kris, Sanzibar, and others. These blades were actually used in those times and there are lots of antiques that can be collected and can be imitated for bladeworks in arnis/escrima.
Historical Revolutionary Blades from Right to Left:
Gulok (Cavite) or Binacoco
(Antipolo), Tagalog Kris, San Bartolome, Filipino Sable, Luzon Matulis (photo
taken from: Arma Filipinas)
Anyway, as I mentioned before, bladed weapons are illegal to carry in public. The use of espada for most common Filipinos is antiquated and only for military ceremonies. And those swords are typically a military smallsword and the military saber, things that are not used in FMA. Later on, the use of bolo and ginunting was incorporated into the close-quarter combat program of the Philippine Marines.
The introduction of historical European fencing in the country is revolutionary in influencing the practices of modern sport fencing and Filipino martial artists. Many HEMAists are also FMA practitioners. But from realization, I can say that swordsmanship is a privilege ever since, not everyone can easily access steel swords and protective gears for swordplay. It is more likely that common Filipino will turn into practice with stick play.
Who knows, maybe in some more years, things will be very different from now and most likely far different from the past. The important is to keep recording and be open-minded and critical.
Joel Anajao y Daddon
8/29/2022
11:12 AM
Indang, Cavite
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