By nature and by genetics, Filipinos are Martial Artists without identifying them in Karate, Judo, Kung-Fu or even Kali. When a baby is born, he or she is protected by the parents either by a Ginunting, Talibong, a Spear, a Sling Shot, a Bow and Arrow against wild animals and against evil spirits.
The child as he or she grows, they are being familiarized with the use of the Bolos, Knives, and other Bladed Weapons used to hunt wild pigs, snakes, lizards and other wild animals.
It is an everyday association with the edge weapon and as a part of the family culture. The artistic art in using the bolo was an education to the family. For instance how to chop the bamboo, how to chop the woods, how to cut banana trees, how to cut the branch of a tree, how to open the coconut fruit, how to separate the ripe bananas from the bunch, but most of all how the father swings the bolo as an early physical exercise in order to attain precision, timing and accuracy.
Every family circle in the Philippines are protection oriented and in the absence of the edge weapon, then the firearms in different caliber, short and long, genuine or imitation are acquired as part of the protection structures. Filipinos are fond of cockfights. Fighting cocks are raised and breed with sophisticated cross breeding and made them super fighters. During the cockfight derby, the amount of bet is tremendously high. The form of entertainment is common in a small barrio and now a national entertainment sports, found in mega cities.
It is amazing to see and experience how the Filipinos love to see the two fighting cocks hitting each other with a razor sharp blade in actual combat, how each rooster is trained to do techniques with magnificent maneuver. The grand winner speaks for the best trained fighting cock and the grand price money.
In a fiesta, where people celebrates for the saints each year, the Filipino men comes down from the mountain and nearby barrios to participate in the festivities but with them is a hidden knife and or a bolo wrapped in paper or clothes. This mentality is common in the island of Negros, Leyte, Panay and most part of the barrios in Mindanao and the Visayas. Lucky for a fiesta if one is not dead, stabbed or hacked by unprovoked assailant. It happens in a barrio, it happens in a city. Everyday major newspaper in the Philippines published incidents of horror, how killing was done by the use of edge weapon and massacred by edge weapon, is an ordinary incident.
Knife culture started from the time people occupied the earth, from a cave to a civilize men. In almost all part of the world, the population is more convinced to have a knife than to have a gun. Knife industry is gaining momentum in sales and production by hand in a unique artistry are peoples favorite and are willing to wait for months or years to have the knife completed.
The influence of knife culture is quite depth in a Filipino lifestyle. It is a status symbol of courage with a red badge on. Many conflicts between family relations are either settled by the actual knife combat or the fear of knife fight will settle the problem.
Knife culture is not just a Martial Art, but it is an art soaked with darkened blood in red color that for one to be a part of this culture, he must undergo the difficult intensive training which ends with the edge to edge combat fighting which is a Filipino Hidden Game.
If one is cut with a deep wound, it is accepted with admiration and with one who is slightly cut is considered an expert. Both must perform complete perfection with exact precision that nobody must be cut or hit within the minute of frontal combat. It is at the point that the philosophy must take effect, one must believe in Life, not Death. One must believe in Good Health, not Sickness. One must believe in Success, not Failure.
Any of these philosophical virtues separated from the knife culture, and then one loses the most interesting events in a warrior’s life. If one desires to attain the highest virtue in the martial Arts world, one must join the Filipino Hidden Game.
