2007 - anonymous
Riding his motorbike in knee-length jeans and yellow t-shirt, Alberto “Edol” Baroro doesn’t look like the textbook version of a sorcerer.
The father of six lives on a modest farm in the cool hills near Mount Bandilaan on the central Philippine island of Siquijor known for its herbalists and black magic.
The sorcerer of Siquijor looks younger than his 60 years with black hair, smooth brown skin and not a line or wrinkle on his face. A regular at the local cockfighting pit where he often enters his own birds in fights to the death Baroro claims he never uses his powers to win.
“That wouldn’t be fair,” he says with a smile.
Unlike some others who practice black magic on the island, Baroro is not ashamed of his vocation but he doesn’t advertise his services, saying: “People know what I do.”
Baroro’s reputation reaches beyond the white beaches of Siquijor and though he regularly changes his cell phone number he has a steady flow of clients.
On the day AFP visited, a woman had flown from General Santos on the southern island of Mindanao where her husband had been sick for seven months after, she said, someone cast a spell on him.
The woman, who did not want to be interviewed, carried a picture of the person she believed responsible for the hex.
She met Baroro at the Red Soil cemetery where they walked to a small altar and knelt to pray. Baroro lit black candles and read verses from pieces of paper he pulled from his pocket.
With the first part of the ceremony over they trekked down the side of a valley, clambering through rice paddies and over rocks to the limestone cave where Baroro performs his rituals.
Hunched over, he shuffled into the cave only to find someone had stolen his human skull - so he returned home for another one which he would use later that night in the final ritual.
Asked how he came by the human skulls Baroro said: “People give them to me.
“When someone good dies I will ask the family for the skull. No one has said no to me yet.”
Cost of a hex depends on wealth of the hexer
Having a spell cast on someone does not come cheap, the price depending on clients’ wealth. Baroro said he charges anything from 6,000 pesos (just over 100 dollars). “I have placed spells on people in Saudi Arabia, Japan and America,” he said.
Asked how he knows if the spell has worked, Baroro said: “The person who ordered the spell rings me to say the person has died.”
Most spells are cast over land disputes or adultery, he says, adding that the strength of the spells depends on what the client wants. Some hexes simply make their victims ill, others kill, he said, though he declined to speculate on his success rate.
“I don’t take on every case. Only the ones I think are genuine,” he said.
Baroro goes inside his house and produces photographs of some of his victims. Fanning them like a deck of cards he says the spells work best if there is a picture.
“I can use hair or a piece of clothing but a picture is preferred,” he said.
Baroro learned his craft from an old woman who used to visit his farm more than 20 years ago.
“We became good friends and she believed I had the power to take over from her when she died. I suppose she felt an energy she had not experienced from anyone else.”
Baroro believes that energy probably came from his grandmother, Boscia Bulongon who was one of the island’s more colourful herbalists, or white witches, and a confidante of the former first lady Imelda Marcos.
Bulongon’s fame grew in the 1970s when a hex was placed on Imelda and she was called to cure her. But Bulongon became mean, in her old age even refusing to pay for public transport knowing the drivers were afraid to ask for the fare.