MABALACAT - A 14-gold haul in 20 podium finishes may have been the Filipino arnis delegation's crown jewel in its 30th Southeast Asian Games campaign, but the reception to the sport's smashing return in the biennial meet gives the Philippine federation's top officials some lasting optimism over its future and sustainability in the region.
With 20 events held and 80 medals awarded across three days to four competing nations in Angeles, Pampanga, this year's institution of arnis in the Games proved to be a roaring success and marked its return to relevance after a 14-year absence.
"When we won it alongside co-champions Vietnam in the 2005 SEA Games, unfortunately the national sports association (NSA) back then (Arnis Philippines or ARPI) wasn't really able to touch base with other countries we're hosting, unlike what we're doing now," Philippine Eskrima Kali Arnis Federation chairman and Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri told ESPN5.com.
Arnis hasn't garnered this much attention and traction after it slowly faded in the back of Southeast Asia's consciousness shortly after the Philippines' hosting of the sport in the 2005 edition of the Games. Changes and some consolidating had to be done to bring arnis back to where it is now, and it initially came in the form of the Philippine Eskrima Kali Arnis Federation (PEKAF), an "all-inclusive federation" established in 2017.
PEKAF eventually replaced ARPI earlier this year as the sole NSA for arnis recognized by the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC).
"We set it up to unite all arnis factions because before, there were a lot of factions in arnis. It's very difficult to unite arnis because we're all based on different styles," Zubiri said. "So many styles, but we all came together because of our love for the martial art and sport."
With an active federation in place, the work to facilitate the sport's renaissance in the region began. PEKAF first arranged a uniform set of rules to unite 27 differing arnis styles and accommodate them into organized competition.
"If you noticed, our first day we had live stick competitions. That is represented by half of our styles in the Philippines. On the second day, we had padded sticks. That was represented by the other half, which is modern arnis," Zubiri explained.
"Visayas and Mindanao, they play live sticks. The padded sticks [fighters] are mostly Luzon. We decided to come up with unified rules, wherein when we call for competition, you can join them all."
After all that was taken care of, PEKAF started to reach out to its neighbors -- mainly to fellow 2019 SEAG competitors Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam -- in order to "foster goodwill" and continue padding arnis' case for a SEAG inclusion.
"As a matter of fact, we lent them our coaches. Some of their coaches are Filipino. We hosted them here in the Philippines. We went to their countries also to train with them in goodwill games," Zubiri bared.
Those initiatives eventually earned the Philippines some willing participants for the arnis competition in this year's tilt, which featured a modern TV replay setup designed to give officials a more reliable review system whenever anyone contested points on the mat during fights. That happened too often -- countries resorted to the replay tool so much that 30-minute breaks in between most matches became commonplace -- but Zubiri said it was a small price to pay to show that the Philippines played fair and square.
"We put technical officials along with a video camera playback system. If you noticed (during the combat events), there were a lot of delays. The delays were because they wanted to review the tapes," shared Zubiri. "That's a new innovation that we put now so that nobody can complain. We do it in slow motion and we count the hits and the scores. It helped four matches in the second day, and two in the first day."
The same playback system that aided its competitors cost the Philippines a chance at a gold medal in the semifinals of the women's lightweight event in the live sticks competition, where Eza Rai Yalong settled for a bronze medal as her win over Cambodia's Veannsonita Si was overturned after a protest.
"It was clear at the time that Cambodia had the edge. Initially the team was mad at me, but I explained to them that we did a playback and Cambodia really won," Zubiri said. "I explained to them that as sportsmen and women, we have to accept if we win or lose because we don't want also to be known as the country that will cheat our way to a decision. If we were not playing by the rules, we could have swept this whole competition."
That act of goodwill was only one of many factors that could give arnis a new lease on life in the 2021 SEA Games, where Vietnam will play host.
As it stands, arnis is only a Category 3 sport and will have to be on the roster of games for two consecutive editions in order to be elevated into a regular event. The Philippines will have to convince the Vietnamese federation to feature the sport to make it two straight -- and based on the impressions they made, along with a plan for a joint plea by PEKAF and POC next month, things could sway in favor of another arnis appearance.
"Based from what the coaches said, they want to," the senator said when asked whether or not PEKAF received assurance of an arnis appearance when Vietnam hosts in 2021. "As a matter of fact, they're convincing their sports associations to host arnis also. They want to host it.
"I just have to follow it through. I'm going on March with POC president Bambol Tolentino to Vietnam with a high-level delegation, and we're gonna ask for arnis as one of the sports to be included. They've already submitted 36 sports. So far arnis isn't there. They're gonna close at 40 and they're waiting for other countries. Hopefully Philippines can lobby for arnis."