When people talk about hilot they will automatically think of it as Massage. But people have forgotten that before modern doctors of medicine arrived in our Land, the Manghihilot is the one who is in charge of the healthcare of the Common Filipino People.

Before the time of the ObGyne and Midwife, the Manghihilot is the one who attends in delivering birth to an expectant mother.

Let us not decieve the Millenials by not introducing the Phillippine Traditional and Natural Medicine.

The one you can find in a classy Spa is not hilot but massage.

Massage is just one of the many modalities employed by hilot in affecting cure to an illness of the Patient.

Hilot is a complete traditional healthcare system that has its own method of diagnosis, prevention, promotion, curative and rehabilitative medicine.

Non stop pouring of rain from early morning to evening. Most areas in Caloocan and Quezon City are already flooded. So every one are advised to stay dry and keep warm in the comfort of your Home. Since its raining so hard outside, let us talk about the health issues brought by the rain.

Have you noticed that most of the Filipino are afraid to be wet by rain? Because rain fall will make us sick. But how is that true and why it happen when we get wet by the rain we get sick?

We should expect that when it rains outside we must be protected by either wearing raincoat or umbrella. Naturally if we walk outside when it rains without protective covering we will get wet. Now-a-days if we get wet by the rain, we expect that we will get sick if we dont rinse immediately through warm bath. The reason why people get sick when it rains is because of the pollutants that the raindrops contain. So when it flood, the water will also be contaminated with pollutant such as the urine of animals and rats that will give us illness when we are exposed to the flood.

But in the Old times, when our environment is still fresh and clean there is a belief that when you get wet to the rain, you will get sick. So what is their reason why you will get sick when you get wet by the rain?

The Answer is this, when you walk and do your work your body is warm and when you get wet starting from the head it will break the heat that will make the cold enter your body. So you get sick because of the imbalanced energy of Hot and Cold.

I remember when i was assessing in TESDA, i have assessed a 70 Year Old Man who apply for National Certificate in Hilot and during the Assessment we have talked about the natural ways of taking bath.

So my question to him was this, in taking a bath- which part of the body must get wet first? probably most of you will answer hands or head. But naturally, the first part of our body that need to get wet first is our feet. In the olden time there is no shower or pail and dipper. People go to the river or stream to take a bath and in going there the feet is the first one that get wet.

So from that reasoning,  i also observe some old manghihilot in doing their hilot masahe. They start from the feet going upwards. I might disagree on this system but we need to consider their methods and we need to study well about it on why they start from the feet upward.

In Promoting Hilot as the Philippine Traditional and Natural Medicine, we must be reminded that our Country is an Archipelago that is composed of 1,107 islands that been inhabited by almost more than 175 ethnolinguistic tribes. From these Tribes, we will find a diverse culture and tradition; at the same time methods of healing that we now call as Hilot.  Modern Medicine arrived to our country during the Colonisation of Spain by the 1600’s to 1800’s. Prior to their arrival, the pre-colonial Filipino’s have our own medicine and as per record shows from the 17th to 18th centuries, the state-of-the-art medical and pharmaceutical science was developed by the Spanish Friars based on the system of healthcare provided by the Pre colonial practitioners of Medicine and Health Care which is the Babaylan.

Each tribe has their distinct method of healthcare and ways on curing illness that modern researcher and cultural advocate must preserve. Standardising it into one process will not help preserving it. We must be reminded that what our Country makes unique is that we cant be called Philippines without the existence of the Ethnolinguistic Tribes that are present in our country. The same thing will apply to Hilot, it will not become a National Healing Modality without the others.

We can not omit one healing practices in favour of the other. Filipino Scientific Community must take time in studying each modality to prove its effectiveness in providing a cure. As Hilot provide also the four dimension of Healthcare delivery as well having its own diagnostic procedure in determing the cause of ailment of the patient.