Karlon N. Rama
Stage five

I HAVE been out of sync lately, missing my last deadline and not submitting anything for the last week of October, while I was in Cambodia for business.

Truth to tell, I don’t think I’m fully in the groove yet. There have been a lot of developments in the local shooting scene since I left that I haven’t fully caught up on. And new events keep on coming.

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Yesterday, for example, was a match sponsored by Lahug Barangay Captain Mary Ann de los Santos.

There were some really nice developments unfolding right before I left but I opted not to write about it then because it wasn’t yet fully realized. Call me superstitious, but I didn’t want to jinx it. I think I can write about it now, though.

By “it”, I mean the establishment of a formal International Defensive Pistol Association (IDPA) community here in Cebu, one that has a significant number of shooters and trained safety officers.

Friends over at the Kamagong Gun Club and I have been wishing upon the stars for many odd years to see one build itself up here in Cebu. One exists in Manila but its establishment didn’t seem to affect shooters here.

In 2005, Kamagong started holding invitational matches that were designed to make people explore defensive shooting as an add-on to conventional sporting pursuits.

We couldn’t do formal IDPA matches because we are not legally authorized to do so. But the club creatively by-passed that by calling our match the Kamagong Tactical Invitational and promulgated our own “house rules” to run it.

This graduated to shotgun and rifle matches the year after that, followed by a sort of hiatus, where we kept our ears close to the ground to notice if shooters would clamor for these defensive shooting matches to be brought back.

The initiative was like planting a seed. But we all knew that it would take time before the seed broke ground.

That, in turn, came sometime in September, propped up perhaps by an internal development within the dominant community of gun clubs here, one that I don’t know much about to discuss with confidence.

At any rate, people in gun clubs other than Kamagong, each also having a very strong following, began talking about defensive shooting matches and their viability as a mainstream shooting sport.

Kamagong Gun Club’s Jun Liao, definitely one of the pillars of Cebu’s shooting community, started the ball rolling by paying good money and registering himself, via web, with the IDPA headquarters in Arkansas.

Jun, who was very active way back in the Kamagong Tactical Invitational days, then went out to help others facilitate their own membership.

Over 50 people, I heard, became card-carrying members of IDPA soon after that.

The number was enough to bring an IDPA certified Safety Officer Instructor from Manila to Cebu for a two-day seminar which culminated in a close-book examination where 19 of 40 people passed to become certified Safety Officers (SOs) late last month.

All that’s left is for all card-carrying IDPA members here to submit themselves to classification, a 90-round process they can finish under the supervision of an SO.

Other than in Kamagong, I understand, the NS Gun Club in Mandaue is also offering classification under the supervision of veteran shooter Yogi Javier, who is himself an
IDPA-classified Enhanced Service Pistol “expert.”

IDPA has several classifications--novice (which is not by and in itself a classification as much as a category), marksman, sharpshooter, expert and master.

Once the classification is over and done with, sanctioned matches can then be held.

One such sanctioned match is scheduled in Manila from Nov. 20 to 22. The competition is organized by the Arms Corp. of the Philippines and will be held at the Armscor Shooting Ranges in Marikina City.

The match is essentially open to all shooters who are current IDPA member, meaning a holder of a valid identification number, to compete for trophy.

The shooters must also be officially classified for the division they intend to compete under. (knrama@gmail.com)