Eskrima, a form of martial art that gained much popularity amongst the Filipinos, also made a number of martial art fighters to learn it in order to go down in history as one of the greatest martial art experts ever. Of these, Ciriaco Cacoy Canete is one. Born in 1919, Cacoy shot to fame as an Eskrima artist and soon after joined the Doce Pares Eskrima Club. Of all the members who once constituted this club that was established in 1932, Cacoy happens to be the only surviving member today. Cacoy is also a black belt holder of the 12th degree and he modified the art of Eskrima sufficiently which is known as Eskrido today. Cacoy lived in San Fernando, Cebu that is a small part of the Visayas region in Philippines and he happened to be born last to his parents after they had given birth to eleven others before Cacoy was born. Eskrima was an art that was practiced traditionally in his family and hence, his training too began pretty early. His brother Filemon Momoy Canete started tutoring Cacoy from the age of seven. Their father Gregorio and uncles Pedro, Juancho and Gavino had trained Momoy himself. Cacoy did not only train in the field of Eskrima but also learnt other martial arts that include boxing, jujutsu, free style wrestling, judo, aikido and shorin ryu karate. Cacoy is best remembered for having fought over a 150 no rules Eskrima matches. He is present in the list of eminent fighters of Doces Pares.
The Doces Pares was set up in Cebu in association with martial arts practitioners from Visayan - a group that took great interest in Filipino martial arts. Cacoy's older brother Eulogio Yoling Canete rose to becoming the president of this eminent club in the year 1939. This club went on to becoming the longest lasting organization established for the purpose of promoting martial arts in the Philippines. In 1988 Eulogio died but till that year he remained the president of Doce Pares.
Cacoy has been with the USAFFE (US Army Forces Far East) while the Second World War was still being fought. He mastered the guerilla attacks and Cacoy held the rank of a 2nd Lieutenant Combat Intelligence Officer in Cebu. He was later ranked as Chief Instructor in Defense Tactics when he was moved to the 38th Military Police Company in 1945. As a rank holder here, he helped in training the 38th, as well as, 39th MP groups halting at Cebu. Cacoy then moved on to becoming Military Police Detachment Commander after completing training and had to halt at Tuburan and Balamban until he was set free in 1947. Records tell us that he also taught martial arts in a number of schools in Cebu itself and himself studied at the University of Southern Philippines.
The Doce Pares club re-established itself, in 1947, and Cacoy was taken as instructor for senior single Olisi which means, "stick". He was also asked to learn Pangamot that means, "fighting bare hands against weapons". The former is a defense that is used to show a machete or a short sword or a knife also referred to as bolo or pinute in Filipino. This was the period when Cacoy brought new understanding to the ways in which the stick could be used. These different methods included linear streaks that had traditional origins, hooking strikes, Cacoy invented thrusts, butts and a technique of curving and using circular strikes. These weapon movements were made use of in unison with disarms, locks, throws and traps. We understand that Cacoy had begun to combine concepts of jujitsu, pangamot and judo into the traditional art of Eskrima and this was taking place as early as in 1948. Later Cacoy also included techniques from aikido into his form of Eskrima that was thereafter called Eskrido. This name was introduced by Cacoy himself to refer to the single stick fighting system.
While in 1952, Momoy stayed on as the senior instructor in espada y daga, also known as olisi y daga, Cacoy became chief instructor for the training of single olisi as well as pangamut. Cacoy did much work to popularize the art of Eskrima in the Philippines. He arranged for meetings with different members from Cebu Eskrima Society in the 1970s and led a movement to form united national and regional matches with rules in order to fetch the art of Eskrima more attention. Till this revolution, Eskrima would be fought with no rules or protection; instead it was used to save one's self from a group of many armed opponents. After Momoy passed away, the presidency of Doce Pares was passed on to Cacoy, a position he still holds till date.