ILIGAN City ― Years ago when I was a kid in a town in Southern Leyte along Sogod Bay, many residents there would hire some pump boats to go to an island municipality in Surigao. There they would seek some cure from some “master” called Ruben Ecleo.

Dinagat was just a few hours away from where we lived if one would travel by boat. Ecleo was tops in curing diseases, it was believed. Especially that kinds of ailments that could not be seen. Like appendicitis or headaches or some other body pain.

“What? He cures those diseases that can’t be seen?” Unbelievers would say. Yet the believers were firm in their beliefs that “the master” had cured them.

And then years later when I came to Cebu City where I studied in my college years, I met some friends and acquaintances from somewhere in Surigao del Norte who told me that some of those young girls had consulted “the master” on what ailed them were “raped.” And they smiled a little when they said thus.

“Huh?” That was only what I could say at those reveals. That was true? Or false? I couldn't say.

Anyway, in one instance when I went home to that town along Sogod Bay, okay, Libagon is the name of that town ― during a college semestral break. I heard a top talk of the town. That a resident there, by the name of Teresita, went to Jasaan, Misamis Oriental, to see some “master” there. This “master” was said to be a leader of another cult, which was said to be a breakaway of the Ecleo at Surigao. Teresita had some ailment, maybe out of the stress of some domestic problem. And so she went to Jasaan.

There the “master” had taken care of her ailment and she was “cured.” Teresita had taken a friend to accompany her to that “master.” After several weeks, reports say Teresita was ready to go home to her family in Southern Leyte, for then she was really feeling very well.

But alas, the friend who accompanied Teresita, narrated that when they were readying to board a ship that would take them to Libagon, Teresita said: “The master is calling me, telling me not to proceed but to go back to him!”

And she did so, the friend narrated. And with Teresita’s going back to that “master” she was never heard of again. Sad.

Such is an example of the influence of cults and cult leaders. During election time, candidates would go to these cults especially those large ones, to court their votes.

And years later, in the late ‘80s when I was working with the government in the Department of Agriculture in Cagayan de Oro City, I and some other employees there could not help gawking at some cult followers of a leader in Misamis Oriental ― I think he was the same “master” which Teresita consulted for her ailment years ago, for the court was across the office of the DA in CDO.

The members of the cult, who were mostly women were all dressed in white whose length was up to their ankles The leader was facing a court battle and the members were there to give him “moral support.”

They all sported long hair when it was still not very fashionable to wear your hair long.

And then, I heard one DA employee say, upon seeing those white-robed creatures with long white attire with their equally long hair say: “I wish I could have that kind of belief!” Oh, well…

Anyway too, on one of my trips to an island municipality in Surigao, upon arriving in Socorro, I saw a monument hovering over a swimming pole. Some residents there paid “homage” to that monument. I saw.

I later learned that it was the image of “the master” before you saw him personally in his house somewhere there. Meaning everywhere we go, there are always cults, cult leaders, and emerging cult leaders. And this we can see in what recently happened to some cultists in Balingasag who implemented some “burning” desire into action!

That’s about it, I suppose. And these big “cults” have attained political power as it is reported that this Ecleo clan is visited by candidates, especially during election time for obvious reasons.

Recently though, a friend told me that the cult there in Dinagat is now called “Rubinian.”

Cults are here to stay with us, I suppose. This belief was reinforced a few days ago when Fely, my friend came to the office to well, among other things to do some “Marites” talk. So, instead of forgetting about these cults and cult leaders, my thoughts about them once more kind of bothered me. For after the civilities, she said that the Marcos family is a “cult.”

“Oh, no!” I said.

“Oh, yes,” she said with equally strong feelings in her voice. “Remember that Yamashita treasure? And Tallano gold? Of which we will soon ‘partake’' of it too? We really are vulnerable people. And she went on yakking about the supposed 27 bravery medals which Marcos received during World War II too were all ‘fake’ and then Senator Raul Manglapus had said that his one such medal was ‘genuine’ unlike Marcos medals.”

“Truly,” she concluded. “Cults and cult leaders are here to stay with us. And are we not damned as a people?”

We remained quiet for a few minutes, lost in our own thoughts that sure did have something to do with what we had talked about.

Email: norasorino2@gmail.com