Commandos from Marines Force Recon Company subdue BIFF guards hand-to-hand

From InterAksyon (Mar 7): Commandos from Marines Force Recon Company subdue BIFF guards hand-to-hand



Marines in training. Inset shows Force Recon men practicing Pekiti Tersia Kali, from the Filipino Martial Arts album of Pinterest user Kwame R. [https://www.pinterest.com/pin/437975132485280060/]

Reports reaching Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) General Headquarters in Camp Emilio Aguinaldo, Quezon City indicated that a platoon from the Philippine Marines Force Recon Company employed hand-to-hand combat against their adversary in Maguindanao recently.

The task of the Marine commandos was to locate lairs behind enemy lines used by the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) at various sites scattered in four municipalities of Maguindanao Province.

Under cover of darkness and applying stealth methods, a team from Force Recon Company under the control of the 6th Marine Battalion Landing Team crawled their way toward a suspected BIFF outpost and caught the enemies off-guard at around 3 a.m. Friday (March 6) in Barangay Liyab, Datu Piang, Maguindanao.

Four of the Marines disarmed the bandits using their close combat skills honed from the home-grown martial arts called Pekiti-Tirsia Kali.

No shots were fired in the operation.

The Marines confiscated one Remington caliber .45 M1911a1 pistol, a Thompson caliber .45 submachine gun, various bomb making materials and four mobile phones.

Lt. Col. Armando Custodio, commanding officer of Marine Battalion Landing Team 6, identified the captured suspects as: Aladin Panaydan, 22; Daud Balogat, 23; Ebrahim Oraw, 40; and Abdul Madalidaw, 33.

Pekiti-Tirsia Kali is one of the oldest home-grown martial arts in the Philippines, based on the traditional blade art called Kali that is said to have originated in Borneo.

Contemporary Pekiti-Tirsia Kali refers to a family system that goes back at least four generations, starting with the clan of Norberto Tortal of Panay Island, further developed and improved in the 1930s by his grandson Conrado Tortal, and now headed by Leo Tortal Gaje Jr, the grandson of Conrado Tortal.

Pekiti-Tirsia Kali is a system taught to the elite Force Recon Philippine Marine Battalion.

The elite Philippine Army Scout Rangers and Philippine National Police Special Action Force are said to have also adopted Pekiti-Tirsia as part of their rigorous training program.

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/106445/commandos-from-marines-force-recon-company-subdue-biff-guards-hand-to-hand