Long before the introduction of modern medicine, the Philippines has its own traditional medical practices that our ancestors have embraced and believed to be effective.
And these have been passed from generation to generation.
As modern medicine progresses to new heights, peoples of the world, on the other hand, have started recognizing the healing benefits of ancient medical practices.
Despite the developments in Western medicine, there is still a global movement toward the unfolding of the maximum potentials of traditional and complementary medicine (T&CM). With this fact, different nations in Asia, which is home to many known T&CMs, have been actively in pursuit to influence more people to once again embrace the traditional way of healing.
To champion this cause, the Philippine Institute of Traditional and Alternative Health Care (PITAHC), together with Aralan ng Paggagamutang Pilipino, a group of advocates of traditional Filipino healers, is gathering respected traditional healers from 14 different provinces of the Philippines in a historical event, which will pave the way for these traditional healers to share and showcase their skills, through the 1st Pista ng Paggagamutang Pilipino 2018 set on November 21 in Davao City.
Pista ng Paggagamutang Pilipino 2018 provides a venue toward raising public awareness on the variety, breadth and scope of Philippine traditional medicine. Through the past millennia, more than 180 ethnolinguistic groups belonging to 110 indigenous communities have become established in the country. Such long periods of interacting with place-specific geological, climatological, biological and cultural diversity have endowed each group and community with its own unique health-care system.
PITAHC Director General Dr. Annabelle Pabiona-De Guzman said that this 1st Pista ng Paggagamutang Pilipino 2018 is a milestone in the country’s recognition of not just the Filipino culture but the individual skills of healers who have been the backbone of many indigenous communities’ health-care system.
“The PITAHC is one with our traditional healers in cultivating their valuable skills and gifts, which have been passed to them by their great ancestors. We are pushing for the integration of traditional and complementary medicine in our national health-care system, thus, giving the Filipino people another health-care option,” de Guzman stressed.
The Pista 2018 is a two-part event. The morning session is a small group presentation and consultation with 14 traditional and indigenous healers, invited and flown in from Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao, as well as local healers from Davao City and its environs.
This session is to be spearheaded by the PITAHC National Committee for the Certification for Hilot and with the participation of the academics and organizations engaged in traditional medicine research.
The afternoon session is a fiesta, which is open to the public, and will be a large gathering of healers, clients, advocates and well-wishers from the Philippines and abroad, where the public can ask the healers about their healing experiences, customs, practices and rituals, and where the healers can share their healing knowledge to the people of Davao.
The PITAHC and Philippine traditional medicine advocates, led by the Aralan, in holding this first gathering of Filipino healers, hope to create better awareness about the diversity of traditional medicine practices among the general public. Through this event, networking activity for possible research collaborations among healers, participating researchers, and academic institutions is envisioned. Last, the organizes hope to utilize the event as an avenue for consultation for strategic inputs for a road map of Philippine traditional medicine for the protection and development of traditional and indigenous healing and its integration to the national health-care system.
The Pista 2018 is also the pre-congress event of the Traditional and Alternative Health Care Congress (TAHC Congress) 2018, a yearly meeting sponsored by the PITAHC, which will be held at the Apo View Hotel on November 22 and 23.
For more information, log on to www.pitahc.gov.ph. (with reports from Aralan ng Paggamutang Pilipino)
Image credits: ARALAN NG PAGGAGAMUTANG PILIPNO