Siquijornons and Their Stories (Honesty)

First I have to tell you about the people of Siquijor. The Siquijornons used to be the local working migrants in Cotabato City. I literally grew up with them and their stories about ghosts and anting anting. As a child, I remembered them going back to their hometowns once a year to attend fiesta, then returning back with tortas and siniguelas fruits as pasalubong.
Before in Cotabato, when I and my children got sick specially from upper respiratory ailments and fever, I would call for a local Siquijornon hilot (midwife) and/or healer to massage us back to recovery. Unfortunately from their stories, their place seemed a sinister lot with tales abounding with barangs (black witches) and curses and deaths.
One popular story in the seventies was when then first lady Imelda Marcos went personally to Siquijor to meet the supreme barang for cure of her legs that grew scales!!!
Despite their dark tales, to this day, I continue to favor employing Siquijornons most specially because of their honesty but sadly their working class are becoming less and lesser.

So as I have posted in my previous blogs, I went to Siquijor for the first time last March with some Cotabato friends. It was the last leg of my many local travels and I was kind of becoming out of sync from getting up so early in the morning.
First, I forgot to put back my local beaded necklace after a spa treatment in the evening but when I asked around in the morning, I was able to retrieve back my necklace from the front desk. Apparently the masseurs returned the lost item.
Lastly, I forgot to wear back my light sweater which I hung on the chair before I took my breakfast near the beach front. I had already checked out from the hotel and was on tour when I remembered I left the sweater. I casually asked the driver of the van to call back the front desk to locate my sweater but communication signals were poor. I left Siquijor that noon without my sweater with me. All the while I thought somebody might take a liking to it.
Because it had become my favorite sweater of late, I did not lose hope looking for it. Upon arriving Manila, I emailed Coco Grove Hotel. I got a reply telling me to call the hotel directly. And so I did and when I phoned them, I was so much delighted to know that my coat was retrieved. I requested Salcedo Oric, our store retired employee who now operates a store in Siquijor to get my sweater back. He went to the hotel with my instructions but was not able to get it back because the custodian was out. However with great sincerity, the next day the hotel sent my coat to his house through one of it's staff.

Thankfully, last Saturday April 14, I finally got my sweater back. Saldedo Oric sent it back to me through our cashier Neneng who was there with her family on vacation. I am so happy and thankful for the honesty and good will of the Siquijornons!
May your tribe increase!