The Pekiti-Tirsia Empty Hands

Pekiti-Tirsia empty hands is a direct translation of the weapon movements to non-weapon motion. Angles of attack are the same as hacking with a blade and slashes and thrusts of the knife. The weapon attribute of range from a long weapon maybe absent but is immediately compensated with close range trapping, joint manipulation and grappling to ground fighting. The base of the hand becomes the pommeling tool for impact, open hand slaps replace the angular slashes of the blade, the fingers and nails substitues for blade tip jabs and rakes, elbows and knees attacks the same target areas for blade entries which makes the opponent grimace in pain whenever the areas are penetrated, the arm and leg limbs becomes the key trapping components for grappling. So basically the whole body contributes as one arsenal to be the whole empty hand weapon.

The key element of the empty handed fighter which may not be found in other empty handed arts is the ability to use limb destruction, small joint manipulation and turn the fight to his advantage. Upon enemy entry, limb destruction is applied to inflict great pain and destroy vital target areas which immediately finishes the encounter within 3 seconds flat.

Apart from striking and locking, the empty handed artist is also well versed in Filipino combative wrestling or Dumog. Dumog-Pangamut or Dumpag is the term called when combined with the empty hand striking aspect. In most cases, if there are feuds in between families, the first person called to serve as the middle man to pacify the trouble is the Dumoguero because the presence of the Dumoguero scares everybody. The Dumoguero is the most feared man of the barrio in the provinces of the Philippines. The situation will be settled immediately in the presence of a Dumoguero in a fistfight or when a drunkard turns wild. A Dumog expert has a well built body with sturdy legs and broad shoulders who walks with legs spread far apart and does not normally wear shoes.

Dumog is considered as a natural sport and a natural ground combat fighting art as well. On tournaments which are held during town fiestas, winners are given awards: a dozen chicken eggs, a fighting cock, a sack of rice, a sack of corn, one gallon of coconut wine, a bunch of bananas, two dozens coconut fruits and many others. To be a complete warrior, the Kaliman trains in the empty handed aspect, weapons and Dumog. The Dumoguero's belief in life, health, and success is well practiced in the fighting system of Pekiti-Tirsia.