This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 17, June 5-11, 2005
Abra’s Timmawidan
and Other Healers
In Abra province’s Malibcong
town, herbal medicines and timmawidan or born healers supply the health
servises that local health officials are often unable to give for lack of
resources. Indigenous women trained as health volunteers fill in the void
particularly in epidemic outbreaks.
By Jhong
dela Cruz
Bulatlat
MALIBCONG, Abra – The indigenous peoples tribes
in the highly-militarized, poor province of Abra have a way of healing local
ailments amid the seemingly scant attention given by government authorities for
health services. Herbal medicines and born healers or timmawidan come in
handy whenever a tribal member gets sick. Likewise, there are community workers
who provide health support in this province in northern Philippines.
Balweg is known to possess healing powers with
the aid of herbal plants that are found in his village such as gawed, a
local antidote for cough, nausea, stomach and headache.
Buanao has five born healers, four of them elder
women. Balweg is the only elder man.
Buanao villagers believe the timmawidan
is empowered by the village's spirit idol sangasang, embodied in a
stone-made monument enshrined at the entry of the villages. In effect, the
timmawidan is the sangasang’s medium for healing and precognition.
Bangilo district is home to descendants of the
Igubang warrior tribe of Kalinga. After the last world war, the Igubang designed
the idol to watch over the villagers.
A timmawidan also leads in community
rituals intended to bring good luck and implore the spirit to spare the
villagers from omen.
Thrice a year, two midwives from the Department
of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) would integrate in the community for
two months to assess their health condition and address their urgent concerns,
said Matnao.
Frequent skirmishes between military troops and
New Peoples Army (NPA) guerrillas also affected the delivery of health services,
Gumanab said.
"The active role of villagers in combating
health problems must be highlighted," she said. "The community provides a strong
support system to the indigenous tribes in the psycho-social aspect of any
health awareness campaigns." Bulatlat © 2004 Bulatlat
■
Alipato Publications Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.
In the hinterland village of Buanao, residents rely on plants like gawed,
kulanting and dung-ilay for medical use. Their abundance
comes in harmony with the villagers’ local shamans called timmawidan.
Crispin Balweg, 63, brother of slain rebel priest Conrado Balweg, is a
timmawidan. A timmawidan is believed to be gifted with prophecy – he
is able to detect diseases and say whether the person afflicted would live or
die.
Balweg said the sangasang has protected them from decimation
through the shamans who were able to predict the outbreak of diseases and
inflict harm on outsiders who disrupt the peace.
A ritual called dulaketan which is officiated by the
healer is performed by offering tapuy (rice wine), sacrificial animal,
the traditional cañao and chanting. The ritual is marked by a salipit, a
pair of animal ears, clasped firmly by a twig and stuck in the stone symbol.
Scarce resources
Village chief Perfecto Matnao laments of scarce resources coming from the local
government for health services. He explained that while indigenous practices
such as the ways of timmawidan and the belief in sangasang in
curing local ailments remain strong, they also expected local health officials
to render health services.
The village is supposed to secure for a quarter at least P77,000 from
the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA). But, Matnao said, actual health services
are hardly visible.
Worse, the construction of an 8x8-meter health center has not been
finished since it began in 2001. The unfinished structure now looks abandoned,
with decrepit with dilapidated ceilings and weather-beaten walls. An assortment
of debris and trash has messed up the floor.
Early this year, the barangay council passed a resolution urging the
local government and non-government organizations to help finish the center and
support its maintenance soon after for the benefit of the villages of Lat-oy,
Buanao and Um-nap.
Poor clinic facilities and bad terrain also burden the local
officials. Last year, a relative of Matnao died of “gulpe” – a tremendous
seizure due to typhoid fever - while being brought on foot by villagers across
the rugged slopes to the nearest hospital.
Among the diseases that commonly hit the villagers but are hardly
attended due to scarce resources are tuberculosis, typhoid fever, malaria,
gastritis and urinary tract infection (UTI), according to the Community Health
Education, Services and Training in the Cordillera (Chestcore), an NGO promoting
community-based health assistance in the region.
Health rights advocacy
Dr. Ana Marie Leung, executive director of Chestcore, said there were
the health condition of villagers was worse when her group first arrived in
1985. That year they trained a team of Community Health Workers (CHWs). The
training included 64 villagers, aged 20-50 years, mostly women, with modules
such as first aid, diagnosis, health planning and launching campaigns.
Today, seven of those trained are giving health services in Malibcong,
receiving a quarterly allowance of P300 generated by the villagers themselves.
After two decades last month, Chestcore health professionals and
volunteers returned to conduct another medical mission, as part of the
activities for the 21st Cordillera Day Celebration held here.
Esperanza Gumanab, 54, a resident health worker complained of scarce government
funding for facilities and medicines. In 1986, she recalled a TB epidemic spread
in nearby Lacub town infecting at least 26 persons. Antibiotics such as
streptomycin and amoxicillin procured by local officials lasted for only 17
days. In response, Gumanab's team of health workers sustained the treatment by
using herbal medicines like dung-ilay and kulintang.
In 1990, the health workers put up a drug cooperative, Botika ng Bayan,
to make cheap drugs available for the villagers in Buanao. "But the coop was
short-lived as most of the villagers were poor. Medicines were lent to them and
they weren't able to pay," Dr. Leung said.
Armed skirmishes
Leung said military clearing operations would last for weeks prompting
health workers to hide the medicines. Government soldiers had accused Chestcore
of supplying the NPA guerrillas with medical support.
Because of this, health trainings are now accompanied with human rights
orientation, teaching the CHWs about community rights advocacy apart from health
services, Leung said.
CHWs are also active members of the Bangilo peoples organization Tadek
(Takderan ken Aywanan ti Daga, Ekolohiya ken Kultura) which was formed in 1998
with a mission to defend ancestral land, life and livelihood.
"Indigenous practices such as the belief in sangasang and timmawidan
must be kept as long as they do not harm the villagers and impede their progress
in health awareness," Leung said.