[SEA games part 2: lutong pinoy]

The reality of how this country has been fixing the games makes me sick. Some of us from the UPLB Arnis team (Sir Mejia, Tandoy, Dos, JC, ate Chini, Bern and Leanne) watched the Arnis events at EAC (Emilio Aguinaldo College, Manila) this weekend and the results were very disappointing to say the least. Here's the full story, I know it's long but I just have to say it:

Saturday:
1st event Men's Single Forms (anyo or katta) Competition: the Filipino player's performance was good; it seemed a bit too flashy and unpractical but at that point we were already convinced that no one else could be better (although it annoyed us that his katta/anyo wasn't pure Arnis - it had a good mix of Wushu and other Kung Fu forms).

But when the Vietnamese player performed his anyo, it was unexpectedly SO MUCH better; in terms of control, force, stability of footwork, simplicity and practiaclity, style not to mention that he used forms that we could actually recognize. Vietnam UNEXPECTEDLY gets gold, Philippines silver for the first event. There were other teams, Cambodia and Timor Leste, but their performance wasn't exactly.. noteworthy, so nevermind.

2nd event Women's Single Forms Competition: Vietnam was first to go and as we expected, her anyo was perfect (using the same categories mentioned above). Our pinoy bet on the other hand (looking pumped up and ready to kill) did yet another wushu-hybrid anyo. It certainly looked "cool" (especially for onlookers who didn't know anything about arnis) but was, as we saw it, lacking in control, force, and stability; the most important elements of a good katta. Vietnam once again takes the gold, Philippines silver.

Before I move on, remember that this is ARNIS, an original Filipino sport. It would look bad in the press (considering Arnis is the first sport in the alphabetical list of the SEA Games) if the Philippines fails to dominate Arnis.

Afternoon: 3rd event Men's Group Forms: The Philippines performed an anyo using pairs of real Bolos (the filipino short swords). The katta was certainly difficult, but they failed in syncronization when one of them fell back a couple of seconds. Team Vietnam on the other hand, flawlessly performed a katta using only normal sticks. Their syncronization was perfect (their footwork, turning, shouts, even the angles of their sticks) - it was like watching one man with two shadows performing. To our disappointment (and confirming our suspicions of a desperate ploy to save face), Philippines still gets gold, Vietnam silver.

On the last event for the day: Women's Group Forms: The same thing happened. Philippines performed an similar version of the katta used for singles, and also lacked the synchronization (their sticks pointing at different angles) that team Vietnam had, but still won the gold.

When the results were shown, everyone was already cheering for the Philippine team; me and the rest of the team however, we just couldn't get ourselves to clap anymore.

It was an even score between Vietnam (two golds on singles katta) and the Philippines (two golds in group katta), a good enough standing - good enough so that the Philippines doesn't "lose" and even make it look like it was a "close match".

After the awarding ceremonies, we decided to come over to team Vietnam to congratulate them and were surprised to find out that their coach, Guro Roel Gatmundon from Arnis Philippines, was Filipino (although it shouldn't have been a surprise at all). We told them how we were impressed by their performance and that we thought they should've gotten all the golds. While we talked, Guro Roel confirmed our suspicions when he told us that someone did approach him to say "...sorry, kailangan talaga.." (sorry, but we really needed it).

And there you have it, the sad truth of how low this country can get just to protect it's reputation as the real masters of arnis, and just to avoid the shame of losing in a sport we practically should be OWNING. Guro Roel admitted that he was torn between his countrymen and his Vietnamese team. Vietnam's coach explained his reasons for accepting the shady deal, he only regrets that his team did not get what they deserved in the competition. The man was trying to save Arnis - he was trying to promote Arnis as a sport in Vietnam, a scandal would only ruin that higher goal, Vietnam probably won't send another Arnis delegation for fear of being cheated again. It's not my place to judge his decision, I don't really know myself what I would have done had I been in his shoes but I know he was just as pissed-off as we were.

Sunday:
I didn't need to watch the sparring competitions to know that they'd "fix" it again. From what I've heard from Coach, Kuya Quan and my team-mates who saw the matches, team Philippines won most of the golds again by magic.

The Philippine Arnis team was crap; I know schools, people who could have done better and would most definitely have dominated the competition instead of these Wushu half-breeds but that's not the point. The point is that we failed to live up to the fact that WE are the masters of arnis, and we should have accepted that - we shouldn't have tried to cover up our mistakes with bullshit. If this is how we're supposed to win, then I'd rather lose.

Is saving face for arnis and the whole country worth sacrificing the spirit of sportsmanship (the very spirit, the principles that martial arts stands for)? No. Being able to tolerate things like this is what makes this country a country of losers. Failing to live up to principle is worse than failing to live up to an image.