FEATURED TEACHER: Iti Walter and Haniti Wesley Crisostomo of Ultimate Eskrima (Pinakatay-Praksion System)
Please click here to watch Mataw Guros Walter and Wesley's video interview. As far as the Crisostomo brothers (Haniti Wesley and Iti Walter) could remember, they have been fond of indigenous games while growing up, became familiar and comfortable in playing with sticks and indigenous materials such as bamboo sticks and twigs, dried sugar cane sticks, bamboo poles, guava branches for kasing (spinning top) and tirador ( sling shot), etc ... fashioned as toys and play weapons to them. Local games such as syatong, bato lata, and most barriotic child games were thought of as games that help them develope dexterity and agility. Big critics (including some eskrima masters) see this as not related to arnis. Maybe so but the way they played these games by heart is more than enough to master the movements of their bodies relative to their extremities. As they matured, they translated and fused these "practice games/plays into the fine martial art that has been taught to them in the town of Mandaue of Cebu province in the Philippines. They were exposed to some of the basics of DeCuerdas of Iti Boring (Liborio Heyrosa) in Mandaue City, Cebu. Most of the knowledge in their particular style of PINAKATAY ARNIS SIGIDAS are by the most part not disclosed. The late Great Grandmaster Iti Boring trained two students who are now addressed as Grandmasters Uwet Jecong and Grandmaster Titing Heyrosa (his son). These 2 GMs had sought help from the Crisostomo brothers and family in promoting inthe USA, their style of arnis called De Cuerdas de Liborio. They have used the Crisostomo property's compound for their training ground and part of the house as their gym, and free food on most training days. GM Uwet taught the basics of De Cuerdas to new students while the brothers just watched and not participating at all. They were never taught the ways of De Cuerdas nor were they trained in personas by either GMs. They were literally not taught the inner works of DC and has never sparred with nor trained with the them or their students as they were just hosts or supporters and promoters of their group. They were later asked to promote De Cuerdas de Liborio abroad when they migrated to the USA but were asked to show only the basics of DeCUERDAS as they saw it. The requested task was not an easy one since they were limitated only to what they saw. More over the brothers found limitations in /////their style so they supplemented the DC de Liborio with the Crisostomo Pinakatay system which they learned from Iti Boring while they were trained covertly and away from the DeCuerdas group. Both brothers were gainfully employed and had to teach only during their spare time. They practiced their system regularly but introduced ONLY the basics to students who want to learn DeCuerdas. Pinakatay Arnis Sigidas was kept in it's pure form apart from DeCuerdas . The brothers persisted even through rough times and accusations and presumptions by the 2 DC GMs on getting rich out of teaching DC which made most critics unsettled. The GMs finally realized that they were barking wrongly but the damage was done in the eyes of everyone. The solution was for the brothers to stop promoting De Cuerdas de Liborio and instead promote now full scale the PINAKATAY ARNIS SIGIDAS system of the Crisostomo Family. As of February 2012, ULTIMATE ESKRIMA INTERNATIONAL promoted ONLY Pinakatay Arnis Sigidas with its own logo and branding. Short History
The original De Cuerdas group was registered in the Philippines as the Knights of the 7 Archangels where the group used to gather on weekends to practice at the Crisostomo brothers' house and dined and tell stories and trained. When the brothers migrated to the US in 1991 they started promoting the De Cuerdas BASICS and had not stopped propagating the FMA ( filipino martial arts) They had since maintained however the originality of what they had learned from Iti Boring and continued honing their Filipino martial arts skills until today. Having difficulty in gathering a good number of students, they persisted in teaching the art to a selected few and still managed to sustain the rental space for their training and practice. The knew of the reality that unless you teach on a full time basis it would be extremely difficult to become a millionaire if you rely only on teaching Filipino martial arts as a part time hobby. They remained in their full time jobs and taught only on weekends when ever a student or two appears. Despite the odds they faced, they developed the heart of the warrior within that encouraged them to go on teaching, all because ... it’s their passion. They just love to teach the art to those talented enough who seek the knowledge and skills behind the Filipino martial arts in general. From 1995 to the present they have continued their association with the Philippine Embassy Cultural events and with the Migrant Heritage Commission /Foundation program of Washington DC, the Smithsonian Institute’s cultural events, Fil-Am parades in MD, Washington DC and Virginia cultural events, at Fort Myer and Fort Belvoir military base and other military bases on martial arts invitation and various other cultural or martial arts occasions. They have received numerous recognition awards from different, government institutions, martial arts groups, and civic groups to their credit. Stick fighting as known to the world as Arnis, Kali or Eskrima is the current national sport of the Philippines. Sadly, not everyone in the Crisostomo’s family home town, province and region is deeply familiar with the art. The great practitioners in Cebu held their grounds against the new generation from teaching them the inner works or so called secrets of FMA. SHORT FMA HISTORY
Traditionally, there is no labeled ranking in Arnis or Eskrima as the skills are passed on from generation to generation. It has been a tradition to have the elders determine your skills according to your progress and promote you with a tap on the head or shoulders and hear the words “MAAYO NA" (you are better now). Then one will have to prove it to the rest of the group until everyone verbally agrees that you have developed much better than those around you. It is common to be challenged into a friendly spar and then determinations are given based on ones performance. The highest ranking is reserved to the elders or the older Manong’s that usually have proven their skills over the years through lost and won battles be it friendly or not. Lately, they are named Master, Grandmaster and Great Grandmaster. As of late only a few Masters are alive and those that claim inheritance are almost always subjected to scrutiny and doubt. Politics and money almost always plays a role in the ranking of the new or modern styles of Arnis or Eskrima. Therefore it goes without saying that each style has their own rankings sometimes in their respective dialectic terminologies together with claims of all sorts. As the saying goes, “be a Roman when you are in Rome” Filipino martial art has adopted the western way of ranking where length of practice and money equates to all ranks accordingly. Some may adopt the sash and head band ranking to distinguish / identify the skill level of their warriors. In most traditional systems, learning was more on a one-on-one with the old manong’s both from the big island of Luzon and from the Visayan islands from which it originated according to written research and sources . Passing of the art to the next generation in each tribal group or family is a tradition where so called “secrets” are preserved within the close clans only. However, during the course of time this has changed where trusted practitioners are chosen to be the next in line when the Grandmaster passes away. Please click here to watch Mataw Guros Walter and Wesley's video interview. Lexi Crisostomo : [email protected]
(301) 646 9851
Walter Crisostomo: Email - [email protected]
Wesley Crisostomo: Email- [email protected]
