MT: How do you become a "Datu"?

[balita]

How do you become a "Datu"?
By The Game - 06-20-2010 06:19 PM

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I wants to know.

I know Presas appointed 6 guys as Datus. The debate on that's famous. I know a couple other guys also use the title. Thing is, they all seem to use it as a tie in to rank. I recently saw a press release that some gm awarded a "Datu Award" to a couple of guys, now one of them's claiming to be a datu. Isn't that kinda like me getting the "Presidents Award" then wandering around telling everyone I'm a President. Seems stupid to me, but what do I know.

Anyway, how much to be a Datu, and can I be a Soke-Datu, and is there a discount with it?


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[Datu Tim Hartman]

I found what the Game was writing about on Budo Seek:

A Special Announcement

I am pleased to announce on behalf of GM Vicente Sanchez - founder of Kali Arnis International Federation, founding member of the Philippine Council of Kali, Eskrima, Arnis, Masters and Senior Master in both Modern Arnis and Lightning Scientific Arnis, has chosen to recognize Dr. Jerome Barber of the Independent Eskrima Kenpo Arnis Associates and Punong Guro Tom Bolden of the American Modern Arnis Associates as Grand Masters of their respective organizations effective 25 April 2010. GM Sanchez’ decision to grant recognition to GMs Barber and Bolden was based upon their individual accomplishments in the martial arts, the quality of students they have produced over the years and the number of years they have been teaching FMA.

Additionally, GM Sanchez has chosen to honor Jerome Barber, Tom Bolden and Bram Frank with a Datu award. The award citation reads:

“CONGRATULATIONS! Your marked display of loyalty and diligence rendered you one of our distinguished achievers nominated as DATU in the practice and propagation of the Filipino Martial Arts. This brings pride and encouragement to us and to fellow arnisadores who also work to attain greater heights in these endeavors. With perfection in mind and spirit, let us preserve such dynamism so that we can linger longer as one of the world’s pride. MABUHAY!”

The Datu Award is does not bestow a rank, title or privilege upon the recipient. It is simply in recognition of dedication and excellence in teaching and propagating FMA - nothing more, nothing less.

Congratulations to Jerome, Tom amd Bram. This is proof positive that favoring quality over quantity really does pay off in the long run.

[Datu Tim Hartman]

Datu Award

It seems that people are giving me way too much credit for my input on this thread. So there are no misunderstandings, I would like to make my position on this clear. I’m not endorsing or defending the three recipients of GM Vicente Sanchez’s Datu award. It seems that people are misinterpreting the award as a promotion of some sort of rank or title. I was asked if Bram should now be referred to as Datu Bram. If you read the announcement, it is clear that Datu is the name of the award. If you will an Oscar, you don’t become one, you’re an Oscar recipient. Now before anyone tries to stir things up, Bram is my friend. I asked him to teach at next year’s reunion camp at my school. This is just for clarification. If Bram was promoted to Datu, I would be one of the first to congratulate him.

On both MT and FMAT, I help to police things of this nature. Most of my work is done in the admin sections of the site or in meetings with Mr. Hubbard. In this case, it was done in the thread of interest. That being said, I do have a question that this thread has inspired.

GM Sanchez does have a student here in the US that addresses himself as a Datu. Is this a misinterpretation of the Datu award or does the GM also use the title of Datu in his ranking system? It doesn’t make sense to me to use one title for both an award as well as a rank. To me, it would seem to be problematic. It would be easy for people to get the two confused. Hopefully someone here on MT or FMAT will have the information and share it with us to help educate us.

Respectfully yours,
Datu Hartman
GM Presas Arnis

[geezer]

All the emphasis on titles can get a little overblown. Datu, Grand-Master, Tuhon, Guro, Maestro... who cares what they call you as long as they call you Damn Good!