A lot of tales. One is witchcraft. They say that if you hate someone so much, just go to Siquijor with something that belongs to that person you hate and find someone there who knows witchcraft. You'll find that someone you hate dead the moment you go home.
That's the image of Siquijor throughout the whole Philippines. That's why a lot of Filipinos are afraid to go there. They said that it's really true before, but it has changed in the recent years. It's either those who practiced witchcraft are now dead due to old age or changed their practice into faith healing.
I'll tell more in the succeeding parts of this series.
One funny story though. When I was in elementary, we asked one of our classmates and his siblings who's father was from Siquijor. They're so poor, like poorer than most of us, that they just eat sweet potato for breakfast or lunch. When asked why they don't want to stay in Siquijor in their grandparents, they said they'd rather stay in our barangay in Negros Oriental and eat sweet potato than go to Siquijor. They were really afraid because they said they were there once and they couldn't sleep. We asked why. They said that they saw dried coconut leaves walking when the sun sets. We laughed so hard, but they were really serious.
ooh that's interesting! reading it creeps me out but please do share the details in next post. Also, coconut leaves walking is funny! I would laugh instead being scared but uh, folktales generally runs deep. No wonder they were really serious about it.
Of course, I will. It's really amazing how they slowly changed the image of Siquijor to tourists. I heard from my friend's grandmother that they made a special council before to plan on how to reverse the image of Siquijor and I say it worked. It worked well to their advantage. Tourists would flock the island during Holy Week to witness the healing ritual and other stuff. I have some photos of the ritual. We witnessed them in one the highest mountain of the island - Mt. Bandilaan.