Traditional healing thrives in Eastern Samar

ORAS, Eastern Samar, Oct. 25  – Even with the advent of the digital age and the establishment of modern medical facilities, traditional healing continues to thrive in this town.

Traditional healers, called faith healers or folk massage therapists, have their way of treating people who are suffering from illnesses. Their method is complicated.

“My way of healing is through massage and oration (reciting of prayers). I massage people with sprains, fractures and similar conditions, as well as babies with a bloated stomach due to ‘usog’,” said folk massager Meling Logon, 59, of Balocaue village.

“Usog” is believed to be a discomfort brought by a stranger or a visitor thought to have an evil eye, who brings an evil wind or a hex.

Learning the skills from her great-grandmother, Logon began healing in 1994 at the age of 35 when three of her children died.

Another faith healer, Nally Mejica Go, of Paypayon village, has been a quack doctor for 43 years. 

She has been treating people since 1993 at the age of 24. After her leg got amputated when she sustained a gunshot wound, she began seeing odd things in her dreams. It was then that she became a healer.

Nally keeps a record book of the names of people she treats. She believes that her skills are God-given, that she will not be helping all those sick people if not because of God.

“I have cured a lot of people with different kinds of illnesses. People who are not feeling well, who have swollen feet or hands, who have been possessed by devils, and even those who have unknown sicknesses that even doctors sometimes could not determine,” Go recalled.

“I just blow on the cowlick of their head and sometimes make the sign of the cross using my saliva, ask them to eat a small piece of paper with prayers written on it, and require them to drink holy water.

 I also use leaves in treating people. I put the leaf in my mouth, whisper Latin prayers and then put the leaves on their head like an ointment,” she added.

Mark Madeja, 20, also of Paypayon village and a believer in traditional healing, said he’s impressed by Go’s ability to heal.

“It’s not that I don’t trust doctors, but for several years, she managed to cure my illnesses, including the time when an evil spirit possessed me,” Madeja shared.

Members of Madeja’s family are also believers in traditional healing because they have all been ill and eventually cured by a faith healer.

“But if you consult a healer, there is one thing you must remember. If you are sick and you really want to get better, all you have to do is believe that you will get through it, that you will be healed, because if you don’t, it would really be an uphill climb or otherwise impossible,” he said.

The healers do not ask any specific amount of money or anything for payment. People who have been cured of their illnesses just put money or anything in their altar as a thanksgiving to the healers. (SQM/With Ma. Myrelle L. Montallana, OJT/PNA)