Kapampangan is new ITF Philippines prexy

A proud Kapampangan is now the president of the International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF) in the Philippines.

The newly-elected president, Robert Joseph Batac, is a businessman from the City of San Fernando and a professional martial artist.

He will now lead ITF Philippines, a chapter of the the International Taekwon-Do Federation in the country. The organization was founded in 1966 in Seoul, South Korea, by General Choi Hong Hi, who developed TaekwonDo to promote the teaching of this martial art.

According to Batac, with his new role, he is eager to help uplift the sport in the country.

“As the new president, I am advocating to spread the art throughout the Philippines.

I’ve been in martial arts since I was young, but was involved in the ITF during the year 2000,” he shared.

“I was one of the pioneers who officially introduced ITF in the Philippines. I was also the 1st National Champion in Sparring and I am the 1st Philippine Representative in the ITF Taekwon-Do World Championship held in Dortmund, Germany in 2005,” he added.

Batac furthered that he is excited to take part in the mission of promoting ITF Taekwon-Do as a sport, martial art, way of life, and a tool for social development.

“I’ve laid low for a while in terms of the ITF Philippine governance and mid this year, I was approached to be the president of ITFPhilippines which I gladly accepted. The past president and administration was idle, so I knew that I had to step up and make a change,” he noted.

“As part of the job, I am creating programs and spearheading the way to promote ITF Taekwon-Do in the entire Philippines, which is something I am very passionate about,” he continued.

Moreover, he highlighted that to improve ITF Taekwon-Do as a martial art, there will be increased emphasis on the traditional core values and protocol and the teaching of self-defense.

He said that ITF Philippines will use seminars, documentation, videos, and other means of communication to spread knowledge of ITF Taekwon-Do— reaching out to new markets and new participants, particularly women.

“Of course, being a Kapampangan, I wanted to share this feat with our kabalens. Recently, we just had our 1st SelfDefense Workshop together with the Pampanga Chamber of Commerce. Our desire is to continue the Self Defense Workshop in all provinces of the Philippines,” he relayed.

For his part, ITF Asia Past President Norman John Bernard said that he admires ITF Philippines’tenacity in pursuing the objective and purpose of Taekwon-Do.

“To the energetic and newly-elected executive committee, congratulations! We will wish for success in your endeavors to teach, train, and develop future champions while encouraging and fostering harmonious community life,” he noted.

About ITF The mission of the ITF is to represent, promote, and work for the development of the practice of Taekwon-Do in all countries by coordinating and certifying Taekwon-Do activities such as competitions and seminars setting.

It also aims to enforce high quality standards for technical and teaching, as well as identifying and collaborating with affiliated organization such as Continental Federations, National Associations, and Allied National Associations— providing assistance to local Taekwon-Do organizations, certification for Black Belt holders, international instructors, and umpi r es.

ITF is legally registered in Spain and has its headquarters in Benidorm. It has chapters across many countries including Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, West Germany, USA, Turkey, Italy, and Egypt.

In the Philippines, it has introduced several programs like the Kids Development Program, which has been developed specifically for children; the ITF TaekwonDo for Health and Fitness Program; and the Self-Defense Program.

Moreover, it has also recently pioneered the Harmony Program, which is a new initiative based on integrating those aged fifty and older into ITF taekwon-Do by adapting the ITF syllabus to suit those wish to start training in later life.

The program aims to attract a new age group to practice the art by catering to their needs in a more harmonising way.

For more information, visit www.itfphilippines.site.