It was the 25th of February of 2012 when I got this Kamagong Stick, a work mate of mine named Lemuel Fuentes gave me this kamagong stick he said it was his father's stick who also practiced eskrima, no one is practicing eskrima in their family anymore and his father was already gone. I've met him when I was still working as their team leader in the assembly line at Sawo Finland at MEPZ2, I was assigned by the manager to interview and pick additional men in my area and going through those papers whom they hired was an experienced carpenter/assembly man, so I looked for him, I was surprised to see him in the machinery area carrying a trash bin, I told the manager that I need this guy, he had enough experience based on his previous job description in his resume, as I approached him I told him if he want to join my team, and he agreed and joyfully join our team. Days passed by and one of my team Eduard Maglasang who was into karatedo joined me in one of our training in Eskrima we would had a chat on breaktime about eskrima, Lemuel Fuentes heard about it and joined the conversation and said that his father was also into eskrima, that was the time he told me that he would give me his father's stick and on the 25th of February 2012 he went to our house and gave it to me, it is made of Kamagong (scientific name: Diospyros blancoi) a plant of the genus of ebony trees and persimmons which is a wood that is typically used as an impact weapon in the Filipino Martial Arts, the stick is 28" long , with a diameter of an inch, and had several chips at the center part of the stick maybe due to some impacts on trainings, and the bottom of the stick was shaped manually, its color was black and had a few strips of brown. I use this stick whenever I want to do and perform the basic routine that I usually practice, a round of the amaras and the basic defense and strike form in a slow and correct form for the stick is quite heavy compared to the usual rattan that I am comfortable with . The last time I visited him in his house he told me that a student of his father who is based at Palawan came to his house and was looking for his father and he told him that his father passed away, the guy then gave him a kamagong stick and said he brought the stick for his father. How I wish I would have known his father but then I'm still happy to have met his son.
0 Comments
The Urban Legend: From 1929 to 1934, the Mayor of Opon was Rito de la Serna. During his incumbency, the Municipal Council of Opon passed a resolution sometime in 1933 appropriating an amount for the construction of a monument in honor of Chief Lapu-Lapu. The resolution was then immediately implemented. The statue of Lapulapu was then holding a bow and arrow and the arrow was pointing at the municipal hall. Whether it was by coincidence or for some other reason,Rito de la Serna died not long after the completion of the Lapulapu Monument. At first, the residents did not connect his death with the statue of Lapulapu. However, when de la Serna's successors died while in office, superstitious people began to talk about the statue. Gregorio de la Serna, a philantropist and a cousin of the late Rito de la Serna, was elected to serve from 1934 to 1936 he died sometime in 1937. Hon. Simeon Amodia was installed to serve the unexpired term of Gregorio de la Serna. But, again, tragedy struck as the newly-installed Simeon Amodia died even before the year 1937 came to an end. It was Pascual Patalinghug (Rito's Uncle/Gregorio's first cousin) who broke the cycle when he completed the unexpired term up to the end of 1937. In 1938, Mariano S. Dimataga was sworn in as the new chief executive of Opon. Whether he believed in the bow and arrow jinx or not is uncertain but he immediately undertook the renovation of the statue of Lapulapu. The bow and arrow was replaced by a pestle. Mariano Dimataga remained as the chief executive of Opon for the next thirty years until he retired in 1968. Bloodline & Timeline: Grandfather G.Y. de la Serna in office ( 1934-1937) Gregorio's nephew Rito Dimataga de la Serna (1929-1934) Mariano de la Serna Dimataga ( 1938-42; 1945-61 and 1962-67). Great-grandfather pascualmangubatdelaserna is G.Y. de la Serna's father. Rito's father Domingo is Pascual's younger brother, Mariano's mother is Pascual's sister, Leoncia. Thank you Dela Serna Family for the corrections on the date and details. A Picture that I took, Sept. 1, 2013 We were having a heritage walk at Parian, Cebu City along with me was my cousin we visited several old houses and found some antique bastons, I was into Filipino Martial Art so I'm happy to see some beautiful antique pieces of canes and sticks, we've visited the Yap-San Diego Ancestral House and Casa Gorordo. We've took some pictures at the old houses but there's something weird that happened at Casa Gorordo as we took a few shots while we were at the upper floor of the house at the back portion near the banyo the camera won't click and I told my cousin to stop taking pictures and we went out, we felt weird, while we were browsing pics we've noticed an image of a person reflected in the mirror, also attached in this post were pictures of the antique bastons that were displayed.
Bantayan sa Hari also called Buluarte in Mandaue City, Cebu is located below the Old Mandaue-Mactan Bridge in Barrio Looc, built around the early 1800's, the watchtower serve to protect the locality from marauders from the seas. The incursions of the Moro Pirates in the town led to the construction of the "Bantayan sa Hari". A bell in the tower kept the villagers informed about any such danger as they would then take refuge in the Patriarch church of Saint Joseph. In wanting to preserve the historic structure, well meaning but misguided authorities cemented over the relic thus its totally modern look. The town was organized in 1835 and named Catmon, the name Catmon is claimed to be after of a tree. Bantayan sa Hari or Watch Tower at Catmon-Daan, Cebu is a structure built around the 1800's which served to protect the locality from marauders from the seas, Padre Miguel de Jesus, an Augustinian Recollect from Spain, first chose this place for his church site the sitio of Catmon (now Catmon-daan). There he also constructed a garrison, a guard-tower or watchtower “Bantayan Sa Hari” to protect the first Spanish settlement from the depredations of the moro pirates plying the coastal areas. the structure is presently located inside the Catmon -Daan Elementary school where kids normally play around. Below were some pictures we took with my friend as we rode our bike all the way to Catmon. Liloan’s Bantayan sa Hari, a forgotten historical treasure that is located few meters away from the lighthouse, I had a hard time going to where it was located since going to where it stands has lots of cave on the ground and no proper trail and was full of shrubs. The Bantayan sa Hari was built around 1857. In the early part of the 17th century, Moros pillaged Liloan, sending residents fleeing for safety to Danao, when Moro raiders concentrated their attacks on Cebu’s north. The Moro raiders turned their attention to the north after the southern Cebu towns’ effective defense of their territories. The raiders not only divested local residents of goods, people were also snatched for slavery. The watchtower is now left to ruins and rubble, only its base part remain. Built around the early 1800′s, bantayan sa hari or watch tower served to protect the locality from marauders from the seas mostly Moro Pirates. The Moro Pirates, also known as the Sulu Pirates, were Muslim outlaws of the southern Philippines who engaged in frequent acts of piracy, primarily against the Spanish, beginning in the late 16th century. One in a long line of friar-soldiers, Fray Julian Bermejo belonged to a handful of friar popularly and affectionately called “ el Padre Capitan.” Known for his military exploits, each town was asked to build the fortification as a first line of defense from the Moro pirates. Fray Bermejo's hard work in shielding the towns of Cebu, from north to south, against the Moros was considered by few local scholars as the crucial moment that made the Christianization and development of Cebu a success.
Fray Julian Bermejo ( 1777- 1851 ) Augustinian Fray julian bermejo was assigned to Boljoon on October 19, 1802 at age 25. An unusually talented and accomplished priest, Fray Julian not only attended to the spiritual needs of his flock, but also taught women how to weave cotton and introduced plants to augment the diet and livelihood of his parishioners. But it was as a competent builder and military leader that he was well known. Prior to his arrival, Boljoon had been attacked by slavers in 1782 leaving the town in shambles and the church bereft of everything save for a few vestments and the image of the Virgin under the title Patrocinio. Another friar, Ambrosio Otero, had begun a new church in 1783 but it stood unfinished when Fray Julian got there in 1802. He assessed the situation and concluded that before proceeding with the construction, he had to secure the perimeter of the church complex. Using mortar and piedra vitoca ( coral blocks ). He built a meter thick wall to enclose an area and fortified it with bulwarks at every corner. Within this enclosure, he built a parish house, completed the church and constructed a large blockhouse, 120 meters long by 80 meters wide, along the north wall and a two storey watchtower facing the sea. Fray Julian then built a string of baluartes from Sibonga to the north of to Santander ( Tanon Strait ) in the south to act as an early warning line. Later this line was extended to Carcar in the north for a total of 96 kilometers. The baluartes were with in sight from each other. Following the religious tradition of his era, Fray Julian named the baluartes after saints associated with the military like the Virgin Mary, the apostles Peter and Paul, the archangels Michael and Gabriel, and Barbara the patroness of the artillery corps, and the 4TH century martyr Saint Cucufate or Cugat, as he is better known in Spain. With the baluartes in place, the coastal settlements would no longer be caught off guard. But Fray Julian was apparently not content with mere defense. To provide deterrence and an offensive capacity, he organized a small armada of ten barangays (shallow draft boats), ready to set sail at a moment’s notice, manned by the towns- people from Boljoon, Oslob, and Caceres ( Ivisan) under local leaders. Each vessel was armed with falconets, fore and aft, and its crew with a variety of weapons of combat at close quarters. The townspeople supported the small armada through a regular levy of food. New products for sale: Padded sticks and plastic dulo-dulo. We initially made these for our own (lapu-lapu chapter) training purposes. After several prototypes of padded stick, we preferred this light weight and medium stiffness design. It's also safer to use than the ones commercially sold in local malls.
For more information pls. contact: Phone 0919 351 7781 Email [email protected] Early Sunday morning while I was biking I took some shots at Marcelo Fernan Bridge a bridge connecting Lapu-Lapu City to Mandaue City and captured some landscape scenery of quasi-industrial and vaguely technological ambience of Lapu-Lapu City, Mandaue City and Cebu City. Speaking of progress , to some it means improvement or a change for the better and until it reach the stage that this so called progress worsens and threatens to destroy the world we are living and realize that this man made wonders are deemed curse I guess it's the only time we'll say "We have to stop this progress" and realize it is too late.
I watched an arnis tournament at Gaisano Grandmall, Students mostly in their highschool were playing the sport type of arnis, it is organized by Arnis Philippines and the group Magkuno Diamond Back Eskrima. I had a great talk with the Supreme Grand Master of Magkuno Diamond Back Eskrima, Ernesto "Erning" Berdin, his background in eskrima was Doce Pares the late Larry Alquizar and the late Momoy Canete were his mentors who taught him about eskrima. He also told me that the sport of Arnis is like a "Dawat-dawat you hit and you'll be hit, it is a sport but in real life you shouldn't be hit by the opponent at all, when an opponent strike you hit him back with 4-5 strikes" . I shook his hand as I went home and thank him for still being passionate with eskrima and teaching it to the next generation. I took some pictures of the tournament. pls. check them out... |
Jay DilanWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
August 2019
Categories
All
|