Your e-mail message:

"Hello Mr. Perez. I am the groupmate of the student from _________ who contacted you more than a week ago about asking some questions. Thank you for your time.

Few weeks ago, we went to Pangasinan to have an interview for our topic (Witchcraft: The Good and the Bad) to be turned into a magazine. We found two known albularyos or faith healers that entertained us for our agenda. In our interview, we discovered that witchcraft or kulam is a medium, thus, anyone like them, chosen by the Lord, can perform this practice. They said this ability was given to them by God and what they call Inang Lupa. We were actually expecting something different, disappointed at first but eventually gotten the hang of the interview so we continued. We learned things that some people don’t like the existence of this Inang Lupa and many other things. So with this, we would like to be enlightened more with your help. Feel free to say something about the arts before or after answering the questions. We apologize if we offend you or already have offended you because of our ignorance and lack of research about the matter. We just based our knowledge to references that we could attain and the things said by our subjects. Some questions might be unclear to you that is why if it may occur, we could give you a copy of an audio of the interview.

Here are the questions:

- How is being an albularyo or a faith healer related to kulam or witchcraft?

- How important is the starting/ending rituals for practitioners? Does it affect the outcome of spells? Does is backfire? How and how bad? And why do some keep these rituals do themselves?

- What was your purpose on releasing this "Panibagong" kulam books? Is it because the old ones don’t work anymore or it's just what it's called?

- Our subject said that the abilities for this practice are not intact forever. Someday, like agimats and other relics, the powers would return to what our subject calls Inang Lupa, so does the former question relates to this?

- is your practice the same with that of our subject?

-Why do you need specific or branded items when performing some spells according to your books but when practitioners like our subject can just use anything he sees from the nature?

-Why do some practitioners consider witchcraft as just a medium?  

My reply:

Hello ______!

Here are my answers to your questions:

"- How is being an albularyo or a faith healer related to kulam or witchcraft?"

How is a nurse related to a doctor, a dentist, and an OB-Gyne?

An albularyo is a folk healer whose main tools are herbs and oil. "Albularyo" used to be spelt "herbularyo".

Kulam is a form of prayer using props.

Witchcraft is a Western women's movement. It is a pagan religion. It does not exist in the Philippines.

"- How important is the starting/ending rituals for practitioners? Does it affect the outcome of spells? Does is backfire? How and how bad? And why do some keep these rituals do themselves?"

Beginning and ending rituals are not important to me, my magic, my writing, and my painting. It is the essence or main body of the work that is important.

"- What was your purpose on releasing this "Panibagong" kulam books? Is it because the old ones don’t work anymore or it's just what it's called?"

The point of the book was to show that magic exists in everyday things, and that people perform magic even without their knowing it. The mere act of wishing is magical in itself.

"- Our subject said that the abilities for this practice are not intact forever. Someday, like agimats and other relics, the powers would return to what our subject calls Inang Lupa, so does the former question relates to this?"

If what he means is that everyone and everything ultimately reune with God, then he is correct.

If what he means is that God gives us a gift and afterward takes it away, then he is wrong.

"- is your practice the same with that of our subject?"

No, if what you mean is:

--I am uneducated and practice an uneducated craft.

--I am poor and rely on my clients' donations.

--I have no other talents and intelligence to rely on.

--I am rural and have no postmodern sophistication.

"-Why do you need specific or branded items when performing some spells according to your books but when practitioners like our subject can just use anything he sees from the nature?"

Names or brands have a psychological effect on users.

"-Why do some practitioners consider witchcraft as just a medium?"

Why is prayer just a medium?

Why is religion just a medium?

I hope this was helpful to you.