From: eskrima-digest-owner@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com To: eskrima-digest@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com Subject: Inayan_Eskrima/FMA-Digest V8 #398 Reply-To: eskrima@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com Errors-To: eskrima-digest-owner@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com Precedence: Inayan_Eskrima/FMA-Digest Mon, 10 Sept 2001 Vol 08 : Num 398 In this issue: eskrima: FW: FMA Top Instructors - GM Ben Luna Lema eskrima: Good Bye Professor eskrima: Religion eskrima: . ========================================================================== Eskrima-Digest, serving the Internet since June 1994. 1200 members strong! Copyright 1994-2001: Ray Terry and Martial Arts Resource The premier internet discussion forum devoted to Filipino Martial Arts. Provided in memory of Mangisursuro Michael G. Inay (1944-2000). Replying to this message will NOT unsubscribe you. To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe eskrima-digest" (no quotes) in the body (top line, left justified) of a "plain text" e-mail addressed to majordomo@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com. To send e-mail to this list use eskrima@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com See the Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) FAQ and the online search engine for back issues of the Eskrima-Digest at http://www.MartialArtsResource.com Mabuhay ang eskrima! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Jay de Leon" Date: Sun, 9 Sep 2001 18:48:47 -0700 Subject: eskrima: FW: FMA Top Instructors - GM Ben Luna Lema - -----Original Message----- From: Jay de Leon [mailto:jaydeleon@home.com] Sent: Sunday, September 09, 2001 6:39 PM To: eskrima-digest@hpswsrt.cup.hp.com Cc: Jay de Leon Subject: FMA Top Instructors - GM Ben Luna Lema I believe that Ray Terry is the second poster to include GM Lema in his list. I did not list GM Lema in my list because I limited my list to teachers in the US and I always thought he was still in RP. As an aside, GM Lema is like Cacoy Canete--a living legend, with a large following in RP, in his 80's, still a physical specimen (a former champion bodybuilder), and an indefatigable promoter of the arts. Is he in the US by any chance? I included Elmer Ybanez, however, who I believe is the highest ranking master under GM Ben Lema. I remember reading somewhere that he was in the US, not sure whether he was visiting or had immigrated. Does anybody know where he is? Yes, I would highly recommend you train with either one of these gentlemen, if you ever get the chance. I know I would. Does anybody know of any instructor of Lema's system (Lightning Scientific Arnis) teaching in the US? Thanks. Jay de Leon ------------------------------ From: "Rocky" Date: Sun, 9 Sep 2001 23:43:44 -0400 Subject: eskrima: Good Bye Professor I know its a late post. again my internet service is proving to be a pain in the butt!! I went with a cable modem which is extremely fast, but seems to work about half the time. On behalf of the Cuentada DeMano Group and both Gm Buot's Balintawak group and my Balintawak students we would like to express our deepest regrets to all the family members of the Great Grand Master Remy A. Presas. Truly one of the great ones. On a personal basis, I am truly sorry to see the passing of Professor Presas. I had just called Tim Hartman the week before to find out where he was hoping to make peace with on of the greatest Masters I ever trained with or met. Unfortunately for the last 6 or 7 years our relationship was strained, and since we are both bull headed it never got rectified, for that I WILL ALWAYS BE SORRY. Life is all to short to hold grudges and due to the type of illness he passed from when I look back maybe his actions were influenced by something he had no control over. I started training in Kali about 1976, and met Professor in 1978 at a number of seminars he gave in the area, Michigan was a hot spot for Professor when he first came to the U.S. which is why so many high ranking people live here. In 1980 I began more serious training under the Professor. He encouraged me to study Pekiti Tersia Arnis ( as it was called back then in Mich) since Mich. was a hot spot for PT due to Erwin Ballarta and GM Gaji always coming to the area. In 1982 Professor talked my father into letting me attend his first summer camp down south at a camp formerly owned by Elvis Presley ( camp Samidilaca I believe ). At any rate I went down a week early with Jeff Arnold, (Remy's hot shot at the time ) and some of his students and we worked on getting the camp ready, which was a lot of work since the camp had not been used in about 5 years , you can imagine how over grown it was. Anyways his first camp still remains legendary. A couple of days before the camp started a couple of the older guys ( but not necessarily legal ) snuck into a local hick bar and ended up in a fight in which a local ended up getting his nose broke, unfortunately the guys father happen to be the local Sheriff. Well the guys involved went back to Mich. and the Sheriff showed up a few days later threatening to arrest Remy. It all worked out in the end, but it made for an interesting time. Anyways in 1982 Remy began to teach me Temor and Moncal's Balintawak, and by 1983 I completed my training in Crossada DeMano, which included the Doublecedario and Palis Palis sub systems. From 1982 to about 1991 Remy spent in the early years as many as 3 months out of the year at my parents house where we trained very intensely and he and my father would swap fighting tech. In 1982 he hooked me up with GMTed Buot and I have been studying Traditional Balintawak with Ted since then. In 1983 at the age of 17 Remy sent me to Sweden by myself to teach Modern Arnis where I gave one of the largest seminars ever at that time at the Tai Nui Kung Fu school in Vastrus (sp) from their I traveled to Germany, Finland and Norway all because of the Professor, he gave me an opportunity very few 17 year olds ever have. The following year Remy and I went together, and the year after that my top student Hal Edwards accompanied us. Professor also accompanied me on a number of Full Contact no pad empty hand fights I had in Amsterdam. We had so much fun together, He was like a father and a best friend. We picked up girls together when we didn't have girl friends and he wasn't married at the time.On several occasions we would drink a little to much and try to train, ( we paid for our fair share of motel damages ). I have so many cool stories I could write for days. But I just wanted to give a little insight on what the man did for me and what I owe to him, he defiantly wasn't your typical GM. One thing I really admired about Professor is he was a real fighter, and even though he was he didn't want his student to do it. In an age where so many masters make a reputation by making their students fight in manners in which they never did, but claimed too, thus creating a reputation for themselves off of the blood of their students, Remy was just the opposite. He use to ask me all the time why I wanted to due the full contact Eskrima and stuff when I didn't have to. Now that I am a little older and wiser I still like the harder training, but I can also see his point. He was a very caring man. In fact his being so caring is one of the things that we had a falling out with. Two years ago Gm Buot got Remy and I together for breakfast we talked and somewhat patched things up, but never really fixed things, I hope he knows now how I really feel towards him and someday we can look back together and laugh about it. For those of you that never trained with Professor you really missed out. I will miss you Remy Rocky Pasiwk 5th Degree Black belt Modern Arnis ------------------------------ From: Ray Terry Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2001 9:57:04 PDT Subject: eskrima: Religion From the 1908 Catholic Encyclopedia entry on the Philippines. Religion. Before the arrival of the Spaniards the religion of the islands was similar to that of the majority of the Chinese, Japanese, and Malayans. They were worshippers of the souls of their ancestors, of the sun, the moon, the stars, plants, birds, and animals. Among the deities of the Tagalogs were: a blue bird, called Bathala (divinity); the crow, called Maylupa (lord of the earth); the alligator, called Nono (grandfather). They adored in common with other Malayans the tree Balete, which they did not dare cut. They had idols in their houses, called anito, and by the Visayans, diuata. There were anitos of the country who permitted them to pass over it; anitos of the fields who gave fertility to the soil; anitos of the sea who fed the fishes and guarded boats; and anitos to look after the house and newly-born infants. The anitos were supposed to be the souls of their ancestors. Their story of the origin of the world was that the sky and the water were walking together; a kite came between them, and in order to keep the waters from rising to the sky, placed upon them the islands, the Filipinos' idea of the world. The origin of man came about in the following manner: a piece of bamboo was floating on the water; the water cast it at the feet of a kite; the kite in anger broke the bamboo with its beak; out of one piece came man, and out of the other woman. The souls of the dead were supposed to feed on rice and tuba (a native liquor), thus food was placed at the graves of the dead, a custom which still survives among some of the uncivilized tribes of Mindanao. The ministers of religion were priestesses -- crafty and diabolical old women, who offered sacrifices of animals and even of human beings. Sacrifices of animals still occur among the tribes; and accounts of recent human sacrifice will be found in the reports of the Philippine Commission. The superstitions of the Filipinos were numerous. In Supreme Case no. 5381 there is given the testimony of Igorottes, who before starting to murder a man, a couple of years ago, killed some chickens and examined their entrails to discover if the time was favourable for the slaying of a man. The hooting of owls, the hissing of lizards, and the sight of a serpent had a supernatural signification. One of the most feared of the evil spirits was the asuang, which was supposed to capture children or lonely travelers. A fuller description of these superstitions is given in Delgado, "Historia General de las Islas Filipinas" (Manila, 1894), bk. III, xvi, xvii, and in Blumentritt, "Mythological Dictionary". As might be expected from idolatrous tribes in a tropical climate, the state of morality was low; wives were bought and sold, and children did not hesitate to enslave their own parents. It was on material such as this that the Spanish missionaries had to work. A Christian Malay race, a people that from the lower grade of savagery had advanced to the highest form of civilization, was the result of their efforts. Up to the year 1896 the Augustinians had founded 242 towns, with a population of more than 2,000,000. There were 310 religious of the order; this includes (and the same applies to the following figures) lay brothers, students, and invalids. The Franciscans number 455 in 153 towns, with a population of a little more than a million; there were 206 Dominicans in 69 towns, with about 700,000 inhabitants; 192 Recollects in 194 towns, with a population of 1,175,000; 167 Jesuits who ministered to about 200,000 Christians in the missions of Mindanao. The total religious therefore in 1906 was 1330 to look after a Catholic population of more than 5,000,000 while secular clergy were in charge of nearly a million more. The members of the religious orders in the Philippines in 1906 did not amount to 500. The condition of the Filipino people, as they were prior to the revolution of 1896, forms the best argument in favour of the labours of the religious orders. The islands were not conquered by force; the greater part of the fighting was to protect the natives from enemies from without. It was not until 1822 that there was a garrison of Spanish troops in the archipelago. And, as all impartial historians admit, the small number of troops needed was due solely to the religious influence of the priests over the people. The total strength of American regiments in the Philippines in 1910, including the Philippine Scouts, was 17,102. To this should be added more than 4000 members of the Philippine Constabulary, a military police necessary for the maintenance of order. Besides their far-reaching influence for peace, the religious orders did notable work in literature and science. Father Manuel Blance, an Augustinian, was the author of "Flora Filipina", a monumental work in four folio volumes, illustrated with hundreds of coloured plates reproduced from water-colour paintings of the plants of the Philippines. Father Rodrigo Aganduru Moriz, a Recollect (Augustinian Discalced), (1584-1626), after evangelizing the natives of Bataan, and founding houses of his order in Manila and Cebu, and missions in Mindanao, set sail from the Philippines. He spent some time in Persia, where he brought back numerous schismatics to the Faith and converted many infidels. Arriving in Rome, Urban VIII wished to send him back to Persia as Apostolic delegate with some religious of his order, but he died a few months later at the age of forty-two. Among his works are: "A General History of the Philippines", in two volumes; "The Persecution in Japan"; a book of sermons; a grammar and dictionary of a native dialect; "Origin of the Oriental Empires"; "Chronology of Oriental Kings and Kingdoms"; a narrative of his travels written for Urban VIII; a collection of maps of various islands, seas, and provinces; the work of the Augustinians (Discalced) in the conversion of the Philippines and of Japan; a family book of medicine for the use of Filipinos. The number of Augustinian authors alone, until 1780 was 131, and the books published by them more than 200 in nine native dialects, more than 100 in Spanish, besides a number of volumes in the Chinese and Japanese languages. How extensive and how varied were the missionary, literary, and scientific works of the members of the religious orders may be gathered from their chronicles. The Philippines constitute an ecclesiastical province, of which the Archbishop of Manila is the metropolitan. The suffragan sees are: Jaro; Nueva Caceres; Nueva Segovia; Cebu, Calbayog; Lipa; Tuguegarao; Zamboanga; and the Prefecture Apostolic of Palawan. There are over a thousand priests, and a Catholic population of 6,000,000. (See Cebu; Jaro; Manila, Archdiocese of; Manila Observatory; Nueva Caceres; Nueva Segovia; Palawan; Samar and Leyte; Tuguegarao; Zamboanga.) ------------------------------ From: Ray Terry Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2001 9:57:42 PDT Subject: eskrima: . ------------------------------ End of Inayan_Eskrima/FMA-Digest V8 #398 **************************************** To unsubscribe from the eskrima-digest send the command: unsubscribe eskrima-digest -or- unsubscribe eskrima-digest your.old@address in the BODY (top line, left justified) of a "plain text" e-mail addressed to majordomo@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com. Old digest issues are available via ftp://ftp.martialartsresource.com. Copyright 1994-2001: Ray Terry and the Martial Arts Resource Standard disclaimers apply.