World renowned Philippine sticks martial arts called Arnis de Mano (literally, “harness of the hands”) is still looking for who actually founded it. Popular in Asia, America and Europe especially today, Philippine masters still debate how it started.

There are various versions of the origin of Arnis (or sometimes called Eskrima or Kali), but most seem to agree that it evolved from the sophisticated arts of China—specifically from the Shaolin Temple.

Many writers have attempted to chronicle the history of Filipino Martial Arts and intimated that Arnis was brought here from different parts of Southeast Asia by different Filipinos with different styles.

One tale goes like this: Long ago Chinese trade vessels docked at the port of Binundok (Binondo), a hilly part of pre-Hispanic Manila. Not far away was a Chinese settlement where Chinese Expats who liked the island lived. Here, an islander, Botho Pula, worked for a Chinese businessman.

Well, before he worked for the Chinese he had a quarrel with him. The Old Chinese easily beat him in the fist fight. To cut the story short, he agreed to work for free as a sign of penitence.

Before long, the old man saw Pula’s loyalty and took him to visit China. Pula eventually ended up studying in the Shaolin Temple. But in the Ming Dynasty, the temple was burned down by the Manchus and the temple monks massacred. Those who survived, Pula among them, were in hiding. The old Chinese was not as lucky.

Pula managed to find his way back to Manila passing through different Southeast Asian countries, taking in several stick fighting styles as he did—Indonesia, Thailand, Borneo, Malaysia, and finally, the Philippines.

From Kuta Kinabalu in Malaysia he landed first in Mindanao and worked his way to Manila from there, imparting the sticks arts he formulated to many natives on the islands. Later, a school of fighting arts in Mindanao was named “Bothoan.”

The natives each had different versions of what he taught them, owing much to different word meanings in their different dialects. Back in Manila, he taught the art to some natives of the North before he finally died.

When the Spanish conquistadores came to the Philippines years after Pula’s death, a cultic group of fierce and highly skilled warriors in the Visayas gave the Spaniards a real pain in the neck. They called themselves the Pulahanes.

Philippine Arnis art still remains fatherless except for some far-fetched claims such as tales like this. Yet, it remains part of the country’s proud heritage and among the deadliest fighting arts in the world.

What would be done to somebody who dares shoo off a king from a church seat? And what should be done to woo an insulted king who owns everything. These are the issues of this Philippine folklore.

According to this folklore, a long time ago, when Spain had just newly conquered the Philippines, there was a town church. It was newly built by the Spanish missionaries who had first come to the islands prior the invading forces. Many converts to Christian Catholicism had joined the church, among them a rich, old lady. The folklore says, she was known in the town as arrogant but religious. She was able to keep all the rigorous rituals of the religion, but people were aloof to her.

Every morning, the folklore continues, she wanted to occupy the first pew in the church. Daily, she would march up straight to the very front pew to take her place. Nobody dared occupy the front pew.

One morning, she came in a bit late. She marched down the aisle, proudly but solemnly, fan gently covering her face, until she reached the front pew. But, the folklore says, to her consternation, she saw a man already seated there. She snapped close her folding fan and shouted at him in impaired Castilian: “How dare you sit there in my pew!” Then, according to the folklore, in a milder tone, she said, “You’re new around here, I suppose, because you don’t know who it is reserved for!”

The man, simply dressed but nonetheless very honorable-looking, smiled and excused himself. He sat in another pew behind her. Afterwards, the folklore says she noticed that people were still looking at her with apparent unbelief and astonishment. She wondered why. Then, the folklore says, an altar boy, or “sacristan,” approached her and told her why. The king of Spain himself had just arrived last night and was now in church to hear the first morning mass---the same guy she had just shooed off to another pew!

The folklore says, the king kept his decorum by simply enjoying the mass, smiling, and shaking the hands of everybody in church after the mass, even the old lady’s. She was speechless. The folklore poses this dilemma: What could she say to somebody she had insulted who turned out to be owner of everything?

This Philippine folklore reminds people to treat everybody fairly, and not value them according to their looks and material possessions.