SugBugoy: The pedestrian tales of one who works for a living.

 THE community of eskrimadores in Cebu mourn the passing of a teacher – Gregorio Ceniza, 82.

Oyong to friends and fellow practitioners, he was a proponent of Baraw Sugbo, a dagger oriented system that traces its roots to Lorenzo Saavedra – one of the patriarch’s of Eskrima in Cebu and teacher to both Venancio “Anciong” Bacon (1912-1981) of Balintawak and Filemon “Momoy” Cañete (1904-1995) of Doce Pares.

 Oyong returned to his creator early last week and his remains are entered at the Mandaue City Public Cemetery. He is survived by his children.

 Baraw Sugbo is not one of the known styles of Eskrima.

 This is understandably so because when people think Eskrima they only see two people with sticks fighting in their heads. And Oyong never went main stream by teaching on a commercial scale. Thus, word of his art didn't spread outside his own close-knit community of fellow practitioners.

 Training is done in twos and proceeds as an interactive drill. Trainings begin standing up, just like corto mano practice in Eskrima, or on the ground.

 Like in Eskrima, the concept of the live or checking hand opposite the weapon hand is very evident.

 And instead of being taught a series of disarming techniques, Baraw Sugbo teaches a flowing maneuver of attacks, counters and counter-to-counter moves like the palakaw of Eskrima.

 The students exchange roles so they can both practice the attacking and defending components of the art.

 Ceniza, according to the book Cebuano Eskrima: Beyond the Myth of Dr. Ned Nepangue and Celestino Macachor, learned the dagger art from his uncle, the late Lucresio Albaño who learned it from a certain Simo, Saavedra’s only student in knife fighting.

 Ceniza taught the art to two men, Cronnie Cabatingan and Rene Capangpangan (1953-2000), as well as to his son, Eduardo “Boy” Ceniza.

 It was Capangpangan who baptized the technique as Baraw Sugbo with Ceniza’s approval. Baraw is the Cebuano word for dagger.

 Cabatingan and the younger Ceniza continue to teach it today. Most of their students are friends and the friends of friends who are interested.

 Minus the 181 “vigilante-style” murders that media has reported heavily on since 2004, the knife rules Cebu City’s mean streets.

 More people are brought to government hospitals for stab wound rather than gunshot wound treatment, attests Dr. Tyrone Mercader.

 And the wounds, he said, range from the ordinary-looking puncture marks to those long hideous slashes that take dozens of stitches to close.

 Thus a martial art that allows a man to defend himself from a knife attack is definitely significant, especially now that a gun ban – which does nothing but encourage street crime by prohibiting law-abiding citizens from fighting back – has limited our manner of protecting ourselves.