Grandmaster Venancio "Anciong" Bacon
Born October 15th, 1912 in Carcar, Cebu City, Philippines. He lived in Labangon, Cebu City. He studied under Lorenzo "Tatay Ensong" Saavedra. "Tatay" is an affectionate term for father as in the American term "pops" or "dad". "Tatay Ensong" organized what was then known as the Labangon Fencing Club, then to be renamed as the Doce Pares (twelve pairs). After the death of Tatay Ensong, through club rivalry, Anciong seceded from the club. Bacon was frustrated with internal club struggles and politics. He was the most outstanding student of Tatay Ensong. He was innovative, original and fearless. Part of his training was as a wrestler. The man was small in stature, probably only 5Â’2" in height and no more than 120 pounds. Anciong was a proponent of the single stick, using the free hand in what is known as tapi-tapi, checking hand or literally translated as the scolding (badlong) hand. This was at first ridiculed by his detractors since the double stick was the standard of the day. Now it is widely imitated and copied by rival clubs. He abhorred the fancy stick twirling, a signature of the "rival club", as impractical in real fights
Bacon established a club in the small backyard of his student Eduardo Baculi. This was at the back of BaculiÂ’s watch shop on a side street known as Balintawak Street in downtown Cebu City. Thus the name Balintawak. Befitting its name, Balintawak is a place in Luzon where the patriot Andres Bonifacio made his Sigao Ng Balintawak or famous cry in revolt against the Spanish tyrants. This was known in
English as the Cry of Balintawak.
(Reprinted from Sam Buot's Balitawak webpage)
{this "tapi-tapi" is not exactly the same as the MOTTS stuff, but i 'm pretty sure this is where Mr. Presas got his from}