My next article is about witchcraft. It’s about my ancestors who are witches. At first I didn't believe that witchcraft was real but I used to believe it when my cousin experience it.
My mother's ancestors was from the province of Kalinga. The Kalinga Peoples are living in a beautiful area of rice terraces and the white water rapids of the Chico River. They are known for their strong sense of tribal awareness and were never subdued by Spanish colonizers in their more than 300-year reign in the Philippines.
I was born in Manila but I almost grew up in Kalinga Province. As my siblings and I grew up we got to know our relatives in our province and it was here that we learned that they had a witch race. At first I didn’t believe it but as the years went by I gradually proved that they were real because of an event that I will never really forget in my entire life. Because even now that we are far away from them I still remember their evils deeds.
And this is indeed the story of my experience.
One day when I was in elementary school I had a cousin who got sick. He could hardly study because of the disease and even the doctors could not explain what his disease was. So my cousin's parents (mom's sister) consulted an herbalist(albularyo) or a witch doctor. They speculated that they might see his illness and be healed. And here, it was found out that he was bewitched and what was even more painful was that, the one who did that to him was close to us. Because he is my mom's cousin (1st degree cousin) who is a teacher and his student is my cousin or nephew. They know that they have a race of witches but what they don't think is that he will even victimize his own nephew. So they did nothing but go back to the witch doctor. And here the "albularyo" or witch doctor told them that they had to fight their cousin-the witch to heal my cousin but they had to be ready in whatever the outcome because my cousin's recovery depends on himself also.
Almost all of us were shocked to witness how the "albularyo" or witch doctor and my cousin fought our aunt-the witch. The "albularyo" admitted to mom and aunt that their cousin was a strong witch. And with each day that passed he and my cousin struggled to fight it. My mom and aunt no longer knew what to do because with each passing day my cousin was getting weaker. He doesn't eat because he says he's full. It was as if his stomach was heavy so he almost didn't want to eat.
My cousin is trying to fight because he still wants to recover and he is too young to disappear from the world. He was then only ten years old. He is currently in the fourth grade and his teacher was my mom's cousin who bewitched him. When just because of my cousin’s stubbornness it all happened. However, my cousin said that he had apologized to our aunt- the witch, for not knowing what he had done to our aunt. But what should not have happened still happened. Because he was angry with my cousin-his nephew he did that.
And then came the last day of the fight between the "albularyo" and my cousin to our aunt-the witch. While they were in the middle of the fight, my cousin suddenly became stronger but with the excessive strength of our aunt-the witch, he also gradually weakened and lost his life.
That incident was very painful for our clan. My mom and aunt almost rejected their cousin. And because of that incident, my parents decided that we should leave our province to escape their witch clan. But my aunts were still left in our province because that is where they make a living. And to this day we all remember that incident. Just this April, our aunt in the province told us that the oldest and strongest witch in their clan had died. The emotions we felt when we heard the news were mixed. We were happy because they finally experienced loss but despite that, my family was also sad because somehow they were still considered our relatives.
Right now we live peacefully. But our witch relatives are now experiencing discrimination because of what happened. And people around us also avoiding them because they have a witch race.
I hope you like my article. Thank you in advance for reading and for your support.
