Yesterday, we are so blessed to be given an opportunity to be present in the Inter Agency Meeting of the Philippine Institute of Traditional Alternative Health Care (PITAHC) with Technical Education Skills Development Authority (TESDA) which are both Government Owned Corporation from Department of Health (DoH) and the later from Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). The concerns of the meeting is with regards to the Certification of Hilot Practitioners in the Philippines which has become a source of confusion among the students on where to be certified.

It was 2008 when the training regulation of TESDA on Hilot Wellness Massage NC2 was formulated and through that Regulation, i was assessed, certified as practitioner and accredited as Trainer and Assessor in Hilot. But on 1997, the law establishing PITAHC was created mandating to promote Philippine Traditional Medicine which is Hilot. In promoting Hilot, education is necessary as well as the Certification of its practitioners. Since there were 2 government agencies that provides the assessment and certification of Hilot practitioners, confusion comes in on where to be certified and with that our presence comes in.

For more than 2 years now, I am working with the Former Secretary of Tourism in the Person of Dr. Mina Gabor (which i consider this work as a Legacy Project on which many Manghihilot will benefit from our efforts.) and now we can actively participate in the policy making as i was chosen and appointed to become a member of Technical Working Group in conducting review to the TESDA Hilot Training Standards to align it with PITAHC Standards and Regulation on Hilot.

With these another flame has been set into a blaze where we as members of Luntiang Aghama and Hilot Academy of Binabaylan can showcase of Light and expertise on our Ancestral Healing Arts and Science.

Do you remember the story that years ago before i become a Tesda Trainer and Assessor of Hilot Wellness Massage NC2, I was unemployed that time and very depressed that i think of my self as worthless. One night i go out and went for a walk on the night of the full moon, it was midnight and no one is around except for the sounds of kuliglig (cricket) and some barking of dogs. I went inside a grassland and lay down on the ground to cry and talk to the moon. The sky was clear and there are many stars together with the moon brightly shining upon me. With tears, I ask God what is my purpose in life, and in my mind there was a voice that ask me back that says: What do you know to do? and i answered: I only know how to do hilot and tawas; by then the voice in my mind answered back: use what you know and live. and another voice is giving me an instruction, reach above your head and pick it up; and when i reach out i have picked a tiny stone and the voice said to me: that tiny stone is you, it seems worthless by now as it is just scattered around, but when you gather all those tiny stones, it could serve its purpose. It can be used to build up great castle.

With new hope in my life i went home. And on the next day, i bought news paper to see for a job offering and i saw a spa in quezon city that is looking for a therapist. I went there and apply, i even demonstrate my hilot skills so as tawas. I gained positive feedback and almost give tawas and hilot to all the HR staff that interviewed me, but i was not hired because they are looking for therapist that has a Certificate. Even that they are satisfied with the skills that i provide still they need a piece of paper that tells that I am good at the skills that i am performing.

I believe that this experience of mine pushed me to dream first of having my own school that will teach Hilot and Tawas and give all my graduates their certificate. Though this dream is not instant. I know it will be impossible for me to have my own school because i am a college drop out and only have a Diploma in Alternative Medicine which i only took for one year.

Again another hope came to me, using my diploma as requirement, i apply work abroad. But the employer asked me if i have a National Certificate on Massage Therapy or Hilot. At that time i do not have. Another failure that i receive. Aside from being rejected i lack money at that time. So to save money, i walked from Mabini in manila to Quezon City Hall. And that decision of walking allows me to think and see places and billboards that may have a Job Opening. Then i found an ads that tells Free Assessment for National Certification. As i found the ads, i went directly to Tesda Quezon City hall, but reaching there i was referred to go to kalayaan ave. to register at one of their assessment center which is the Humancare International. And there I meet my Boss, Dr. Grace Sanico.

My purpose in coming to their office is just to apply for the National Certification, so they scheduled me for an assessment; but upon seeing my credential as Diploma Holder in Alternative Medicine. Dr. Grace recommend me to become a Tesda Trainer and Assessor. Then upon passing my assessment , i took the Assessor and Trainers Methodology course and passed it and been accredited as Trainer/ Assessor for Massage Therapy and Hilot Wellness Massage. Then all become History. Through Humancare we have served BigHands Foundation and have trained many hilot therapist in Quezon City. We also have established the Phililippine Certified Wellness Therapist Association that will help our Graduates in Massage Therapy and Hilot Wellness to have a Job. We also had established Hilot Centers in Camp Crame, Camp Aguinaldo and Fort Bonifacio in Taguig. And have conducted numerous wellness missions in metro manila. And those were the glorious days.

Then Dr. Grace have sent me to cavite to teach a Japanese company that cater vacation houses for the retired japanese elderly. While in Makison, the Big bosses of that company ask me to start Philippine Japan Hilot Association. But that doesn’t last for good. When the company was bankrupt, i decided to work abroad in Saudi Arabia, and after my two years contract, i went back home and established Hilot Academy of Binabaylan in April 5, 2016.

Now, Pandemic has come, I thought that our Work will also stopped as travel to the Philippines has been halted. But the Great Spirits have guide us to open up through Online Training. Now, the world is about to open, and face-to-face classes will be allowed. We are praying that our preparations will be accepted and may the Great Spirits bring us the people that they have called to be one of us here at Hilot Academy.

Giving out certificates through our Training does not only means Money for us. Enrolling through our classes will serve as our Fuel to continue our effort in conducting research and developing techniques that will make the traditional to be adaptable in our modern times. Your enrollment to us will give us numbers that will become our stronghold that we can present to the Philippine Government that they may give value to our works in preserving this ancestral healing arts and science in the Philippines.

Connecting with these important people in Philippine Society, is our effort in bringing up the image of Hilot. Helping them to come out of the donation basis servitude and make their efforts be properly paid off. We are making an appeal that our manghihilot be properly employed and thinking of them be placed in Baranggay Health Center and make them also to have a basic monthly salary to be paid eiher by DSWD or DILG. We are making a plea also to consider creating Traditional Medicine Unit in all public hospitals in the Philippines so that our manghihilot can be employed there by rendering their service as Manghihilot.

I can see that our Manghihilot can also be partners with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources as well as Department of Agriculture. Our Manghihilot can be experts not only in Herbal Medicine but also in Fruits and Vegetables. Philippine Institute of Traditional Alternative Healthcare can benefit from our Manghihilot by giving them job as Field Researcher as well as product distributor from all the products manufactured as a result of the research. With these partnership, we can lower the price of medicine and improve the citizens health status by strengthening the preventive healthcare practices.

Each new day it changes me. It’s either it gives me a new strength so as weakness of the body. But whatever that comes to me in each new day, I welcome it gratefully! What matters to me is that the Life Force is still united in my temporal Body. So with that I use it to work out with something great, so that when the life force expires, the thoughts the I leave will remain and will continue to inspires everyone. ( I hope that i does to you.)

Before Pandemic our mode learning is through Face-to-face interaction, and this was changed by the situation of pandemic that we offer now online training on selected skills. It’s been already 2 years now when we started our online training program called Non Contact Hilot : Mind and Spirit Work, that makes our students to become expert on the art of Spiritual Diagnosis called Tawas. But that i just one skills that a Manghihilot must have. So that is incomplete unlike on our 9 days training program which is taken for 16 hours/ day that you become a certified Hilot ng Aghamang Binabaylan on whichour graduates can perform basic tawas, hilot masahe and herbal cure. I want that all of our graduates could perform that, and because of that I am making an Enhancement to our Training Program and I am creating 3 Certification Program that will lead to a Diploma in Hilot ng Aghamang Binabaylan which will give you a Title Hilot Binabaylan.

My Idea of becoming Hilot must consist of Qualification of a Traditional Healer that could provides diagnostic health care services, implement traditional healing techniques, and can supplement home care therapeutics. And with that we already have created and implementing the Non Contact Hilot: Mind and Spirit Work which will provide our graduates the title of Magtatawas/Magaanito/Pangutanahan and Pangatauhan. Then currently I am working out The Hilot Gamutan modules which will give you a Title as Manggagamot; then there is still need to add in our Albularyo Certification Modules.

So as of this moment, we already have two modules for our certification programs and there is an update to make for our Non Contact Hilot: Mind and Spirit Work as currently it has 3 Learning Units that consist of the following:

What you have read above is just a portion of it and there are more to expect from our work.