About
Four decades on the mat.
The people, the practice, and the lineage behind Makati Aikido Club.
Makati Aikido Club is temporarily closed for renovation.
Our usual training venue at the Makati Sports Club is under construction from July 2026, for a projected four to six months. Regular classes are paused at our customary venue during this period.
In the meantime, MAC members are training at other dojos around the city, continuing to train under the instructors introduced below. For where classes are currently being held, or any question at all, reach out on Facebook or by email.
Our Story
Founded in 1983.
Still on the mat.
Makati Aikido Club was founded in February 1983 by John Anh Havan, a Vietnamese-born, Oxford-educated aikidoist who began with a handful of students at the Makati YMCA. From the club's very first year, Havan worked to connect his students to Japan Aikikai — the art's world headquarters in Tokyo — a connection that has never lapsed. Every rank the club has awarded since is recognised worldwide.
In 2007 the club moved to its current home at the Makati Sports Club, where it has trained continuously ever since — including through a 2020 pandemic closure. From April 2020 to March 2022, Sensei Troy Nones conducted a total of 269 weapons classes via Zoom. The MAC dojo returned to in-person training on April 2, 2022.
In January 2025, members carried nearly 300 tatami mats by hand into a new training room within the same building. And for more than forty years running, the club has closed every year the same way it began: with a New Year's Eve practice on December 31st, training together as the calendar turns.
Practicing Aikido in the heart of Makati since 1983.
Our Instructors
The people who teach here.
Together, MAC's instructors carry more than 125 years of combined Aikido experience. Every rank among them is conferred by Japan Aikikai in Tokyo — nothing is self-awarded, and teaching here has always been unpaid.
Dam Amaranto
6th Dan · Chief Instructor & Dojo-cho
Has trained for 37 years at the MAC. He leads both the Saturday's youngsters class and the immediately subsequent Saturday adult class — the first class most new students ever take at MAC.
Royce Reyes
7th Dan · Club Administrator
Has trained at the Makati Aikido Club for over 43 years. Served as MAC Chief Instructor from 1999 to 2008. Leads Monday's adult class.
Billy De Leon
6th Dan · Senior Instructor
Has trained for 36 years at the MAC. Leads Wednesday's adult class. Also a practitioner of Filipino Martial arts.
Bruno Lamblin
6th Dan · Senior Instructor
Leads Friday's weapons class, open to adults and youth aged 14 and up. Has practiced aikido for over 43 years, mostly in France. Sensei Bruno is founder of two dojos in Lille, France, and continues his connection with them, but has decided to spend his later years in the Philippines. He joined the MAC in 2022.
Troy Nones
5th Dan · Instructor
Has trained at the MAC since 1999.
Kaori Kaye Leonardo
1st Dan · Instructor
Co-leads Saturday's youngsters and beginners class alongside Sensei Amaranto.
Our Lineage
Standing on others' work.
The club's roots trace to John Anh Havan, who founded Makati Aikido Club in February 1983 and spent decades building its connection to Japan Aikikai before his passing in 2019. Tadashi Komenoi Sensei, a Japanese expatriate who served as chief instructor from 1988 to 1993, shaped much of the discipline and quiet humility still practiced on the mat today — a debt every generation since has carried forward without needing to be reminded of it.
Our Affiliation
Part of something larger.
Makati Aikido Club is a founding member of the Filipino Federation of Aikido, and every rank the club awards is conferred by Japan Aikikai, the art's world headquarters in Tokyo. Since 2000, MAC has trained alongside the FFA's monthly interclub practice — a standing reminder that growth comes as much from training outside your own comfortable circle as from training within it.
Curious to meet
everyone in person?
Simply show up 15 minutes before any scheduled class and introduce yourself to the instructor or to anyone who appears to know his way around. They will take care of you from that point. That is all.