Ma. Luzvisminda And her mother Facunda Sanabal Berro
THE SABANAL SAGA:
LAURENTE "LAGUNO" SABANAL, HIS SON AMBOY KIDLAT AND DESCENDANTS
The story of Laurente Sabanal probably took place at about the same time as the Borinaga story. Laurente "Laguno" Sabanal was imprisoned for killing a Spanish guardia civil in Bohol sometime in the mid nineteenth century. He later escaped and fled to Moalboal on a rowboat. Finding the place rich in fish, the fugitive went back to Bohol to bring his family to their new home.
The town of Moalboal used to be called Laguno to honor the man who has successfully repulsed Moro pirates on the shores of this rustic southern Cebu town. A batang or huge driftwood lay on the mangrove shores of Moalboal that is widely believed to be the final burial ground of Laurente Sabanal. It was also here that his magic cane that once struck fear among the encroaching Moro pirates was buried. Today, the batang that Moalboalnons call Laguno is still visible during low tide on the shores where a fish market now stands nearby. It is ironic indeed that in the municipal hall of present day Moalboal stands a monument of Dr. Jose Rizal, but none for the man who once pioneered and defended the town’s women, children, their religion and culture. And to add salt to injury, the credit for the origin of the martial art that Sabanal practiced and probably helped develop and innovate went to his former nemesis.
Part of the eskrima apprenticeship passed on by Laguno to his son Pablo "Amboy Kidlat" Sabanal involved a ritual of casting spells on lana (coconut oil) that gave them protection from evil forces. The ritual took place at a cemetery on the night of Good Friday. The traditional method of footwork exercise also made use of three coconut shells during moonlit nights. Amboy Kidlat would challenge anyone to hit him in any part of his body without losing his footing on the coconut shells and at the same time successfully foiling all attacks. As a prerequisite, the apprentice would have to undergo full contact sparring also known as juego todo with the use of rolled upak, the outer dead skin of a coconut palm.
Pablo "Amboy Kidlat" Sabanal was a drifter on horseback who roamed the towns of southwest Cebu to teach eskrima. One of the inheritors of the system we interviewed was the late Julian Goc-ong a decorated World War II veteran who acquired it from his uncle Felix "Titi" Goc-ong
A contemporary of Moro-moro stylist and fellow townmate Telesforo Subing-subing, "Titi" joined a labor strike in the Hilo plantation where he once worked. An American officer on horseback tried to break the picket line, but "Titi" did not budge an inch and instead hit the horse with a powerful punch on the face knocking it down and its American rider. The incident earned him the respect of the American plantation official who later became a matchmaker of juego todo (no holds barred) fights. Titi beat the Hilo Eskrima Champion and later killed an African American in a fair duel.
Titi was reputed to be very fast with his hands that he could catch a live fish in the shallows barehanded. When Manoy Julian was interviewed for this article he was very explicit in telling us that they do not have a name for the eskrima style of Amboy Kidlat. It was simply called eskrima, however for purposes of making a distinction of their system from the others and it being the dominant technique of their methodology, he called it Abanico de Vertical which is just one of the styles they practiced along with the florete, fraille, juego literada techniques.
The other techniques that comprise Abanico de Vertical are:
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Fraile- basically kulob / hayang (pronation-supination) and ginunting, espada corta, punta y daga techniques -
Florete- basically double stick. -
Juego Literida- akin to Lastico technique to counter aggressive opponents -
Cadena de Pasa- a fluid motion of continuous double stick strikes starting from the lower extremities to the head or vice versa.
Julian started learning the art of eskrima as a teenager with a certain Himaya as his first instructor who taught him the first the double stick florete technique. When Felix "Titi" Goc-ong arrived from Hawaii in 1922, he gathered all his nephews to train in eskrima. Julian along with cousin Dalmacio "Maciong" Goc-ong trained with their Tio Titi in Barangay Nanca during moonlit nights. Eskrima in the old days was taught at night to maintain secrecy. The highlight of these nocturnal workouts was the triangular footwork drill. The exercise requires alternate stepping on three coconut shells cut in half to develop balance and body angling.
Julian Goc-ong died in February 19, 2003. He passed on the eskrima of Amboy Kidlat now known as Abanico de Vertical to his son Patricio Goc-ong a Nestle sports executive and former two-time Philippine weightlifting champion in the bantamweight division.
Teodoro "Totong" Nuevo was 84 years old at the time we interviewed him in 2002 near the ancestral home of Amboy Kidlat in Moalboal. Noy Totong also told us of the story of the other eskrimadors of the Sabanal clan; among them was Jose Sabanal a prodigious fighter who was known to have defeated seven armed attackers while on the ground. He made good use of his hands and feet to block and strike at the attackers. Another extraordinary member of the clan was the younger sister of Amboy Kidlat, Silvina " Insi Benang" Sabanal. Manoy Totong narrated that Insi Benang was a practitioner of tagolilong the art of invisibility, camouflage and deception akin to Japanese ninjitsu. Another skilled eskrimador belonging to the clan was Filomeno "Ingko Menong" Sabanal a man of superhuman strength who can lift a heavy metal grinder with his teeth.
Although he never had formal education Amboy Kidlat spoke conversational Spanish and memorized long Latin orasciones, according to Noy Totong. Amboy Kidlat’s proficiency in Spanish despite a low educational background is interesting because he could have acquired it from his father Laurente. Who could have taught Laurente the language of the colonizers at a time when barely 2% of the population spoke Spanish, unless he was a privileged warrior class once trained as a mercenary by the Spaniards in the pacification of Mindanao? In his book The Filipino Martial Arts Dan Inosanto fondly recalled that on their way to a TV appearance, his revered instructor GM Juanito La Coste who spoke fluent Spanish went out of his way to assist as interpreter for a Mexican family having trouble getting a bus ride. It is very intriguing indeed that Lacoste who spoke pidgin' English and who probably came from a poor working class Filipino family could speak the Spanish language reserved only for the rich and famous back in his home country. We can only surmise that GM Lacoste and the other Cebuano pioneers in the U.S. like Jack Santos, Telesporo Subingsubing and Lucky Lucaylucay descended from the same warrior class ancestors of Solferino Borinaga and Laurente Sabanal. GM Lacoste's hometown is still a mystery, however, here's the real clincher: GMs Julian Goc-ong, Telesporo Subingsubing, Lucky Lucaylucay and Jack Santos all come from the same town - Balamban, Cebu where the drifter on horseback Amboy Kidlat once taught eskrima.
Amboy Kidlat bore children from an illicit affair, one of them was Brigido who also inherited his eskrima and extraordinary strength. Wrongly imprisoned for stealing bananas and coconuts from a neighbor, Brigido bolted out of jail by bending the iron grills with his bare hands.
The only living daughter of Amboy Kidlat at this writing is Facunda "Aling Cunda" Sabanal Berro. Aling Cunda was born in Tunga, Moalboal on November 25, 1924. One of Aling Cunda's fondest memories of her late father was during World War II, when she saw how her father intimidated a Japanese soldier who barged into their home, by bending a crowbar right before the eyes of the frightened intruder and slammed it on his chest. From then on, no Japanese soldiers knocked on their doors again.
Aling Cunda learned eskrima by simply observing her father teach his brothers Brigido, Serapion, Alfonso, Ubaldo and elder sisters Magdalena and Segundina. Aside from her father one of her biggest influences was her aunt Insi Benang Sabanal, a ferocious fighter who she remembered foiled an attempted rape by nearly suffocating the attacker to death with a tight submission lock.
Aling Cunda has a collection of mystical panyo (handkerchief) inscribed with Latin incantations that they used as headband for protection. When Luzvisminda Aling Cunda’s daughter showed us an old picture of her grandmother Demetria, Aling Cunda fondly recounted that her mother was also an eskrimador even before she met her father Amboy Kidlat. When we asked why there were so many women eskrimadors in her era, Aling Cunda confirmed what we had been expecting all along. She was the first and probably the last living eskrimador we interviewed to corroborate that the primary purpose in learning the art was to defend their villages against Moro pirates.
Women being the favorite prey of Moro raiders for their harem, it is not surprising that some of them were equally deadly fighters. Even during the early 20th century Moro pirates continue to sow terror on the coastlines of Cebu, her elder brother Serapion took on the job of their grandfather Laurente in defending Moalboal against Moro raids. This firsthand account on the use of eskrima against Moro pirates is the final seal to prove that our theory on the origins of the Filipino Martial Arts is historically correct!
Aling Cunda is a testament of her generation's courage, strength, tenacity and profound spirituality. Truly a remarkable woman and eskrimador, the last living child of the legendary Pablo "Amboy Kidlat" Sabanal and granddaughter of Laurente "Laguno" Sabanal, the true hero of the south and probably the first to introduce the art of eskrima to the island of Cebu.
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