Lolo Cacoy

Two worlds suffered a great, irreplaceable loss over the weekend. Supreme Grandmaster Ciriaco “Cacoy” Cañete passed away. He would have turned 97 this year. Not only did arnis – more commonly known as Filipino Martial Art or FMA around the world – lose perhaps its greatest proponent, Filipino culture lost a great pillar of its richness and history.

Lolo Cacoy was born in 1919, youngest of a very large brood. His brothers were all warriors, stickfighters, hence the name Doce Pares. After World War II, Cacoy put up the gym that carries his name to this day. One of the great blessings of being a storyteller in sports is meeting people whom you know are making a difference, creating ripples that will be immeasurable through time. I can honestly say that I have never met anyone whose impact in a particular sport itself will be as far-reaching as Cacoy Cañete. His influence is felt in every major arnis program in Europe, Asia, North America, Australia and other places on the map. He and Roland Dantes took what is a Filipino sport, and made it acceptable and loved around the world.

SGM Cacoy not only promoted and taught kali and eskrima, the progenitors of modern arnis, he also created his own fighting arts. Among those combinations were eskrido, a blend of eskrima and judo, and pangamot, another deadly form of hand-to-hand combat. He wrote books detailing the how-to of each new genre, with photographs of himself demonstrating them. He was always generous with his time and energy, which often seemed boundless. Each time we did an interview, he would give me his last copy of each of his books, with a touching handwritten note, which is another lost art in itself.

But more than how he almost singlehandedly pushed the theoretical, practical and geographical boundaries of arnis, it has this generous passion which he shared with everyone that endeared him to the world, literally. At one of his biennial conventions and world championships, I witnessed literal giants of the sport in their own countries, fearsome men of various races, do the traditional Filipino mano, asking for parental blessing as if they were Lolo Cacoy’s own children. And to a man, all showed the deepest respect and, many admitted, fear of their master. It filled me with pride. Some even told me how they saw him defeat trained fighters half, even a third of his age. Even in the last few years, when he was confined to a wheelchair, he still wielded a lightning-fast, fatal stick.

Lolo Cacoy punctuated conversations with his hoarse, throaty laugh that filled the room. We once talked deep into the night, and he would never run out of naughty (but never vulgar) old-style jokes that made you titter. His enthusiasm for arnis and for life outstripped anyone less than half his age. He told stories of growing up and learning when to fight and when not to fight at an early age. He told true tales of death matches between masters of different clubs, like the challenge fights we frequently see in Chinese period kung fu movies. But these were real, two-men-enter-one-man-leaves battles that left people crippled or dead, simply for bragging rights. Thankfully, Cañete survived these personal wars that persisted until the 1980’s.

They say the greatest master is not the one who has the most students, but the one who creates the most masters. In this, history will show that Cañete is unmatched. But despite having grown the sport in dozens of countries and breeding tens of thousands of disciples, Cañete’s greatest pupil is his world champion grandson Chuck, whom he practically raised as his own son after Chuck’s father – Cacoy’s own son – passed away. Chuck, who calls his grandfather “Papa”, was Cacoy’s favorite sparring and demo partner, student and champion. They often traveled the world together, passing on the spirit of arnis to Filipinos and foreigners around the globe.

In 2011, Cacoy Doce Pares gave this writer an award for outstanding FMA journalist. It sits in a place of honor in my home, more for who it came from than what it stands for. Cacoy Doce Pares also organizes its own competitions and invitational tournaments in Cebu, and seminars and ranking events in other countries. His shadow is long and wide over the sport, and will only keep rippling out, since his own students are the pioneers of Filipino stickfighting in their own countries. Whether they know it or not, the students in all those schools abroad owe him a debt of gratitude they will only be able to pay by passing it on.

Personally, what I will miss are the great stories, the colorful jokes, and being made to feel welcome in the humble home where his gym also stands, his eyes lighting up each time he made me smile. He was charming and disarming, the polar opposite of the fierce, steely old battle-tested grandmaster lying within. Each time you hear the words pangamot, kali, sinawali, eskrido, abaniko, kris, they will always be associated with Cacoy Cañete. There are no two ways about it. He was the master of masters, and the sport and spirit of arnis will live on in the thousands of seeds of greatness he planted in his students all over the world, for all time.

Thank you, Lolo Cacoy. Your move on with your battles having all been won.