Inside a defunct Daly City elementary school-turned-studio space, a roomful of adult pupils was getting a lesson in how to fend off a knife attack, courtesy of one of the legendary practitioners of Filipino martial arts.
Dressed in a black gi festooned with patches, Dr. Remy Presas Jr. demonstrated how to block away an attacker’s knife hand and then alternately strike with the opposing hand. The roomful of students focused on Presas’ every instruction with the kind of reverence due to a modern pioneer of the practice.
“The Presas family is one of the major, major components as far as keeping Filipino martial arts alive,” said Joseph Bautista, owner of Legacy Filipino Martial Arts, the school where Presas Jr. was making his special appearance.
Presas Jr. is a second generation practitioner of the kind of self-defense systems utilized in the Philippines for thousands of years. In the 1970s, his father Remy Presas Sr. brought his version, known as Modern Arnis, from his native Manilla to the U.S., settling in the Bay Area.
His version was a weapon-first strategy — a weapon being anything from a stick to a knife to even a ballpoint pen.
“You don’t need to have a big weapon when you’re holding it," said Presas Jr. "You improvise things you have with you. You can use it as a weapon, not to hurt anybody but to defend yourself.”
Presas Sr. was not only a modern interpreter of Filipino martial arts, he was also a master marketer, traveling the world spreading his strategies and philosophies. He took his systems to police departments around the U.S., training departments while running camps and writing books. When he died in 2001, he passed the torch to his son.
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“Before he passed away, he had told me if I could jump in and continue the legacy of promoting Filipino martial art," Presas Jr. said.
Presas Jr. embraced his father’s request and has likewise traveled the world and across the U.S. holding seminars and preaching the gospel of his fighting systems. The majority of his students are non-Filipino. But within the legions of disciples, he takes pride in knowing he’s spreading a culture as well as a legacy.
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“My father would say, 'When you learn Filipino martial arts, you’re able to learn the Filipino culture and become Filipino,'" said Presas Jr.’s daughter, Samantha Presas.
Presas Jr. noted that Legacy Filipino Martial Arts is one of the few schools actually run by a Filipino. Bautista came to the art later in life but through it discovered the connections to his Filipino heritage. After taking over the school, he realized students were joining for reasons beyond just learning fighting and self-defense.
“People don’t only train here just for physical nature,” Bautista said. “They train here for culture reasons, social reasons - they want to connect with their roots.”
On a recent Saturday of Presas Jr.’s class, students ranging from kids to adults paired off with fighting sticks, dueling on rubbery athletic mats. In another former elementary school classroom, Presas Jr. imparted the wisdom of his fighting style, which he adapted from his father’s techniques. Antique fighting sticks and knives decorated the walls of the room.
Bautista bounded between classes, making sure everything ran smoothly, soaking up Presas Jr.’s lessons before dashing off to hand out lunch orders.
“The joy for me is being able to see people get more empowered,” said Bautista. “Be able to have more confidence and learning more about their culture.”
Among the clusters of students also taking in Presas Jr.’s lessons were his daughters, Samantha and Joanne. Joanne Presas said growing up she didn’t even known her grandfather’s legacy. It wasn’t until the day she flipped through a book on Filipino martial arts that she discovered his picture and a chapter describing his massive influence in the arts — known as the father of Modern Arnis.
“It’s such a great thing that my grandfather started it,” Joanne Presas said. “And now we’re the next generation.”
As far as the next chapter of the family legacy, Samantha Presas learned Filipino martial arts as a kid and hopes to become the next generation in her family to teach.
“A lot of it is going with the flow, being able to move with the current, being able to adapt,” Samantha Presas said. “That’s something Filipinos historically had to do. Having to move to America, having to fight for their own rights.”
For Presas Jr., the family legacy is immersed in martial arts. Not only was his father an innovator, but his uncles also left their vital imprint on the traditional self-defense systems. And it would seem, the family’s story will continue through his own daughters.
“Very proud for me,” Presas Sr. said, sitting in one of the classrooms. “Because I can see the legacy left behind by my dad.”
