Cebuanos are noted for a native form of martial arts - the art of stick-fighting called olilisi or arnis. Olilisi derives from olisi or ulisi, “a cane or staff,” while arnis probably derives from the Spanish arnes, which means “armor, hardness, or accessory.” Stick-fighting also came to be called eskrima, from the Spanish esgrima or “fencing.”

It is said that Lapulapu, the hero of the battle of Mactan, was a master of the art of fighting with what the chronicler Antonio Pigafetta called a “fire-hardened” stick. Oral tradition tells of how Lapulapu could throw a pestle-sized stick right through a live coconut trunk, and of how he could outmaneuver using any of the “six variations” of the slash-and-thrust of the arnis.

Local history says that the Spaniards found the art of stick-fighting so “brutal” that they banned it. Perhaps the reason for this was more a matter of security than reasons purely ethical. The art, however, survived in theater where it found a place in the fencing sequences of the play called linambay (or komedya, an elaborate spectacle based on European medieval romances) and in the ritual battle scenes of the drama-performance of the Sinulog, the Cebuano dance of worship.

In 1932, Cebuano eskrimadores organized themselves into a group called Doce Pares, an evocation of the Twelve Peers of France. Founded by Lorenzo Saavedra and Filemon Canete, the organization has continued to this day. It has promoted this old form of martial arts which has through the efforts of masters like Ciriaco Canete, gained devoted adherents not only in the Philippines but also abroad.