Holy Week in siquijor Tourists flock to Folk Healing Festival

SIQUIJOR, Siquijor, Philippines  — Andreas Haslinger, an Austrian tourist, spent almost two weeks of his vacation to see the Folk Healing Festival and to discover the mystic of the island-province of Siquijor.

Haslinger was just one of the thousands of tourists and visitors that joined the Folk Healing Festival held at the Bandilaan Mountain View Park here from April 4 to 7. A Holy Mass with Msgr. Candelario Catubig as celebrant signaled the opening of the weeklong event.

Siquijor Governor Orlando Fua, Jr. in his message to the crowd said the annual event held every Lenten Season has made his province more popular in the Philippines and the world as one that promotes natural healing.

The governor told The FREEMAN that, during Black Saturday in various parts of Siquijor, folk healers gathered to have their cooking sessions using different kinds of herbal plants and sea matters they have collected through seven Fridays before Good Friday.

Herbalists and folk healers (mananambals) from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao met with their local counterparts for the preparations of medicinal potions and healing activities that were done and practiced in the villages of Cantabon, San Antonio, Cangmatnog, and Ponong.

Tree barks, roots, herbs, dirt, insects and other “secret” ingredients are thrown into a large cauldron filled with coconut oil. Some of the herbal preparation takes place on Black Saturday, believing that, with the death of Jesus Christ, entities and supernatural forces roam the earth and share their healing powers to those who seek their assistance.

Folk healers were organized and have their respective schedule of cooking herbal and other forms of preparation for performing ritual cures and recharging their healing powers.

Many achieve fame for their ability to develop amulets and charms, worn by some people to this day that they guaranteed to make a person invincible against human enemies. Other sorcerers concoct love potions or make amulets that are known to make their owners invisible.

Reneto “Eto” Gonzaga, a 40-year-old folk healer who has been deemed the greatest in Siquijor, started healing activities at the age of 22. Since December last year he has been ministering divine healing sessions at the Sto. Niño compound in Cebu City.

Another folk healer, Mang Noel Torremocha, told The FREEMAN that insect bites, sorcery, mental disorders and even broken relationships have corresponding herbs, concoctions and Latin prayers for their cure. This folk healing continues through this age of technology because people find it cheaper and more effective, he said.

In Ponong, dead caves were the venues where sorcerers do their session and make love potions. In Cantabon, similar practices are done for free, but in San Antonio, healers were charging hundreds of pesos from their clients.

In Cangmatnog, no interviews, cameras and videos are allowed, and people can only watch. Healers in some barangays in San Juan and Lazi towns also prepare some kinds of medicinal herbs, but the provincial government recognized the Bandilaan Mountain View Park in the capital town of Siquijor as the venue for the annual event where visitors and tourists can view and observed the cooking and healing activities.