This book has evolved in concept and content so many times that it is difficult to explain and narrate how this project actually started. It all began with my third collaboration with the late Punong Guro Edgar Sulite of Lameco Eskrima International.

Edgar, in the late 1980s, wanted to do a book that included and covered many of the known and obscure masters of the Filipino martial arts. As fate would have it, I was in the process of emigrating from Australia to the United States then and so Edgar, with Alex Co’s financial backing and support, had to pursue the project on his own. Armed with a small camera, pads of legal size paper, and an unquenchable desire and vision to pursue his most ambitious project, Edgar embarked on his odyssey.

Five years would pass before the project would ever be resurrected from oblivion as it languished in storage at Alex Co’s Makati residence. Hidden in bits and pieces of handwritten notes were the thoughts, the principles, the legacy of many great men of the Filipino martial arts. Faced with the task of unraveling all the scattered bits of information and pictures left behind by Edgar when he emigrated to the United States, Alex, during these five years, labored frustratingly to finalize Edgar’s book.

It was on one of my many trips to the Philippines that I asked my friends Alex Co and Christopher Ricketts for the status of Edgar’s much awaited project. I was informed of Alex’s frustration with the entire project and his inability to recoup his investment. I asked and verified that all of Edgar’s copious notes, in whatever form they may be, were complete and intact. I then asked Alex if he would trust me with the entire collection of notes, photos, and manuscript, and said I would try to tackle, organize and make sense of all these materials. With Alex’s permission, Topher’s confidence in my ability to organize the material, and Edgar’s blessing, I took the entire box of materials with me back to New Jersey.

It was in New Jersey that I re-lived and experienced the frustration that Alex must have faced. Hours turned to days, and days into weeks as I sought to unravel and thread together the scattered bits of information and pictures into a cohesive form. It would take all of my analytical training and ability to piece together the scattered and seemingly unrelated facts into an acceptable form. My wife, Marilen, assisted in transcribing the notes and manuscripts of Edgar as well as in labeling each and every photo in relation to arbitrarily arranged articles.

I was constantly in touch with Edgar, who by then lived on the West Coast, prying information from him, trying to make him recall the sequence and substance of his odyssey. Edgar’s faith in my ability, similar to Topher’s confidence in me, gave me the encouragement to overcome this seemingly insurmountable and unwieldy task.

After nearly a year, Edgar and I beamed happily over the proof of the manuscript for the completed book Masters of Arnis, Kali, and Eskrima. I then prepared to send it back to Alex Co in the Philippines for printing.