What is Atillo Balintawak?

     Balintawak was established in 1952 not only by Anciong Bacon, Delfin Lopez, and Inting Atillo. There were also others who were involved in its establishment. Ising Atillo was an original member of that organization as well; he was the youngest member at the age of 14. Velez, Villasin, and Buot became members much later.
Ising Atillo's System is Balintawak but he added to it what he found to be more useful and removed what he thought was useless. Note that all other styles also customized Balintawak in their own way. Although the main foundation of all other Balintawak styles is the same, they are all different in some ways.
Ising Atillo claims to be original Balintawak, because he was an original member when it was first established. Anciong Bacon and his students alone cannot claim Balintawak because many of its original members were not students of Anciong Bacon.
     As of now there is not one group that can claim to be the only original Balintawak because the original Balintawak was separated into 5 different groups in 1975, each of which claims to be the best and the original. Atillo is only one of them. But Balintawak is only a name; the system itself was rooted to Lorenzo Saavedra. Many ask why Atillo claims to be Balintawak if he claims to follow Doring Saavedra's style. The answer simply is: Don't fuss over it; it's only a name. What is more important to me is the effectiveness of the art. Call it what you want, it won't change the art.

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