Arnis: RP's National Sport

Bill Velasco wrote an article today about our very own Arnis just recently in his column The Game of My Life. In there he said that Arnis is now the Philippine's official sport.

In January of this year, Arnis De Caballes blog reported about the REPUBLIC ACT NO. 9850 "An Act declaring Arnis as the National Martial Art and Sport of the Philippines".


Here is the executive summary I found at Filipiniana.net:

"EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Republic Act No. 9850, approved on 11 December 2009, defines the indigenous Filipino martial art of Arnis and declares it as the "Philippine National Martial Art and Sport." The Act then orders the Department of Education, the National Commission for Culture and and the Arts, and the Philippine Sports Commission to promulgate the rules and regulations necessary to carry out its provisions."

 

The Law mandates the promotion of the sport and this one will have to start at the grassroots. It will be offered as part of the physical education classes in the grade school and secondary level. In the tertiary level, Arnis has long been part of the physical education curriculum.

This is a  very good move for all of us Filipinos! We will have our very own sport that we have easy access to and easily identify with. When I think of Arnis, images of native sticks and very lean and muscular body type of a man holding them.

Maybe the best start the people behind the movement of this sport is to establish the official name of the sport. Some of the names are:  arnis, kali, escrima, baston and yantok.

IPEAC has a good write up about the sport's history plus some more! Visit IPEAC-Arnis. Wikipedia has one good entry with Eskrima and lastly, to find out about Arnis Philippines activities click here.

To stick or not to stick, that is the question my friend!