While representing the National Capital Region, team members from the Cordillera provinces and Ilocos region trained under the Oriental Muayboran Academy ruled the recent 13th Bureau of Jail Management and Penology’s sportsfest in Quezon City on July 10 to 11.
Coach Brendaley Tarnate of the Oriental Muayboran Academy said the 10-man team composed of J/Insp. Mark Joseph Fajardo, Jail Officers 1 Daniel Bosikaw, Proem Tuguinay, Lovelyn Martin, Allan Jake Ulep, Jessie Gulingay, Jay-ann Dawing, Karlo Pay-an, Lordwin Francisco, and Rusha Mae Bayacsan dominated the unarmed self-defense demonstration, which was the highlight of the competition.
Tarnate said the team rigorously trained for almost two months in between their work duties.
The team was led by Bayacsan, a Southeast Asian Games 2019 silver medalist and also a Muayboran and yoga teacher. She composed the choreography with full fitness routine.
The warm-up was a solemn wai kru which served well in stretching and loosening up the muscles and joints, and calming the nerves.
Tarnate said selected techniques of Muayboran were strategically combined in a smoothly planned offense and defense flow.
“The routine toned down with yoga poses as the cool-down exercise. Each member of the team contributed their ideas which eventually produced a superbly creative and splendidly acted poetry. The jaw-dropping presentation ended with a quixotic act of a warrior’s prostration of love to his lady,” she said.
Tarnate said the winning performance of the team showed essential techniques which are functional in situations that require skills in pacifying or neutralizing an aggressor – skills that every jail officer of any rank should possess.
The team members are from Ilocos, Ifugao, Isabela, Cagayan, Benguet, Mountain Province, and Kalinga.
The martial arts and fitness-themed tournament was participated by 13 regions.
Team BJMP-NCR snatched the championship crown from last year’s defending champion Region 2, who relegated to the first runner-up plum followed by CAR and Region 4A. – Ofelia C. Empian
