Filipino armed combat is known variously as arnis, eskrima(fencing;
Spanish, escrima), and kali. Arnisderives from the Spanish word arnes,
meaning “armor.” Arnis, or “harness,” no doubt also refers to the battle
harness worn by Filipino soldiers under Spanish command. Arnis-de-mano,
or “harness of hand,” denotes the deft hand movements made by Filipino
grooms working for Spanish officers. Lightning-quick hand movements
were alleged to be native martial arts techniques in disguise. Forbidden by
the Spanish to practice indigenous martial arts, defiant Filipinos purport-
edly retained their fighting skills in secret by hiding them inside dance
forms called Santikan, Sayaw,and Moro-Moro.An alternative thesis pro-
poses that FMA is classical fencing that evolved with incipient nationalism.
Hence, FMA is the modern expression of fencing evolution.
Other etymologies have been suggested for the names of the various
Filipino arts. The Spanish term esgrima(skirmish) has entered the Pilipino
language. Kali, according to some accounts, might be named after the
Hindu goddess of destruction. Internationally recognized FMA master Dan
Inosanto contends that Kali is the conjunction of the first syllables of two
words from the Philippine Visayan language—kamot,meaning “hand,”
and lihok, meaning “motion.” Thus, Kalimeans “hand motion.” An ex-
amination of the Pilipino language indicates otherwise. In the Hiligaynon
dialect of the Western Visayas, the term kalimeans “to dig,” as with a
shovel (pala). A shovel is a spade and the word for sword is espada.Kali
probably derives from the Visayan word kalis,meaning “sword,” which
was written in a shipboard chronicle of Magellan’s voyage in A.D. 1534.
Unarmed combat is mano-mano(Spanish; hand-to-hand), but is also
kuntao and silat.To describe the plethora of FMA styles, methods, and sys-
tems is arduous; some—Doce Pares, Lacoste, Modern Arnis, and Pekiti Tir-
sia—are publicized through seminars and are associated with particular in-
structors such as Ciriaco C. Canete, Dan Inosanto, Remy A. Presas, and
Leo T. Gaje Jr., who spread the FMA in Australia, Canada, Germany, Great
Britain, and the United States.
Geographically situated at the crossroads of Southeast Asia, the
Philippines are located near the equator above Borneo and below Taiwan.
With a population estimated at 60 million, the Philippines are larger in area
than Great Britain, but smaller than Japan. Those unfamiliar with the
7,107 islands and three major regions of the Philippine Archipelago, Luzon
(north), Visayas (central), and Mindanao (south), may be confused by the
eighty-seven different dialects of Pilipino (Tagalong), the national language.
English is the language of business and education, and Spanish is spoken to
a lesser extent.
Foreign languages are remnants of immigration to and colonization of
the Philippine islands, which influenced native Filipino martial arts. It is of-
Philippines 423