MANILA, Philippines – Rolly (not his real name), a businessman, keeps a small doll, an old book with incantations in Latin, and a needle, all tools left behind by his 70-year-old mother-in-law who is on vacation in a hinterland village in Mindanao to recharge her powers as a “mangkukulam” or witch practicing in the Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas and Valenzuela area.
“We need these magical tools to get back against people who wronged our family,” he told The STAR in an interview.
Rolly, who regularly travels to and from Barangay Dagatdagatan in Caloocan City to Baguio City, said the magical tools have been temporarily left in his care. He said he is reluctant to practice witchcraft because it would involve devil worship.
“I do not want to go to hell. That is the consequence of being a mangkukulam,” Rolly said.
He said there are several witches in Camanava but they hide in remote areas because of the dangers of their chosen “profession.” He said these mangkukulams are wary and avoid encounters with albularyos or medicine men, who also abound in the area and can counter their spells.
Rolly said his mother-in-law, who inherited the craft from her ancestors in a remote Mindanao village, has already cast spells on people who wronged their family. He said among them is a man who framed their relative of a crime, and that man suffered a heart attack after his mother-in-law performed a ritual in which she pierced the doll with the needle.
This ritual, he said, is called “barang” and is carried out with the help of a “bangaw” or large red fly kept in a glass container. Before performing the ritual, the witch would whisper to the fly and show it a photograph of the intended victim. The witch would then release the fly so it could go to the victim.
The witch will then cast a spell read from the book and begin piercing the parts of the doll with a needle. Rolly said the man his mother-in-law cast a spell on, who lived several kilometers away, was reported to have suffered pain in several parts of his body as the ritual was performed.
Though he believes in the effects of witchcraft, he is keeping the tools, wrapped in black cloth, under lock and key until his mother-in-law returns from Mindanao.
“I might go insane if I cannot properly say the Latin incantations,” he said.