Ernesto Presas
Filipino arnis master born in 1945, younger brother of Remy Presas and founder of the Kombatan system and of the IPMAF federation.
Quick Facts
PhilippinesBiography
Ernesto Presas was a Filipino arnis master and the founder of the Kombatan system. He was born on 20 May 1945 in Hinigaran in Negros Occidental. His father was the eskrimador José Presas and his older brother Remy Presas, founder of Modern Arnis. According to the website of his student Tim Hartman he is no longer alive, but we have not been able to document the date of his death.
He began training at eight under his father. He also studied judo, jujutsu, karate and Filipino and Japanese weapons, the sources give neither teachers nor dates.
In 1970 he began teaching at the University of the Philippines and the Lyceum, later also at the University of Santo Tomas and the Philippine National Police Academy. According to FMA Pulse, in the same year he demonstrated arnis at Expo 70 in Japan and founded the association ARJUKEN. In 1975 he founded the International Philippine Martial Arts Federation. In the nineteen-nineties he reworked his system and renamed it Kombatan, which emphasises two-stick techniques alongside work with the blade and unarmed fighting. English Wikipedia attributes books to him from The Art of Arnis (1981) to Kombatan Curriculum (2007).
The Kombatan system is today led by his son Ernesto Presas Jr. Robert Castro, founder of Eskabo Daan, also trained with Presas. Most of what we know about him comes only from English Wikipedia and the websites of his students, we have not found official websites of Kombatan or the IPMAF federation.
Teachers, students and family
Associated Martial Arts
Organisations
- International Philippine Martial Arts FederationFounder · 1975
Ranks and titles
- 10th danLakan Sampu · Kombatan (Presas Arnis)
- 8th danLakan Walo · Kombatan (Presas Arnis)