Zubiri's arnis video goes viral after tiff with Trillanes

An old video featuring Senator Miguel Zubiri winning an arnis tournament has gone viral following his recent tiff on the Senate floor with colleague Antonio Trillanes IV.

Netizens have found the video, originally posted online on March 7, 2011, and have flooded it with comments. It has more than 4,000 shares and nearly 5,000 likes as of Thursday.

The video was from an event called the Manila Arnis Eskrima World Invitational Tournament. Zubiri said it was from 1989.

Zubiri and Trillanes were engaged in a word war on Tuesday during a legislative session following Trillanes’ accusation that Zubiri, along with Senator Richard Gordon, attempted to “whitewash” a Senate probe that would look into the bribery scandal involving former Bureau of Immigration (BI) officials. 

Zubiri appeared to have challenged Trillanes to a fight during the commotion, saying: “I did not become a world champion of arnis for nothing.”

Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III then moved for the suspension of the Senate following the word war between his colleagues.

After almost an hour into suspension, Sotto moved to strike off the record the "unpleasant exchange" between Zubiri and Trillanes.

Zubiri and Trillanes were later seen shaking hands before the senators proceeded with their agenda for the day. —JST, GMA News