BIBIANO “BOY” S. FAJARDO

Maestro Bibiano“Boy” S. Fajardo (1944-2018) was a practicing Albularyo, Manghihilot, and Gabay-Buhay who made it his life work to preserve, promote, develop, and teach the Hilot healing tradition.

BIBIANO “BOY” S. FAJARDO

Maestro, Albularyo, Manghihilot

Bibiano “Boy” S. Fajardo was an entrepreneur-builder whose background in chemical engineering and successive business ventures— coupled with an interest in the extraordinary—paved the way for him to learn from expert healers from different parts of the Philippines. In so doing, he was able to develop a comprehensive healing practice and method of teaching Hilot that drew from healing wisdom across the country.

Originally pushed into practicing healing after he was healed by an Albularyo from muscular dystrophy, Fajardo pioneered the advocacy for the recognition of Hilot as a mainstream healing system rooted in scientific principles. He also developed a methodology and curriculum for the formalized teaching of Hilot and herbal healing, which he began teaching in seminars and training programs with the organizations he was part of in 1986.

When the spa industry blossomed, Fajardo was requested by the Spa Association of the Philippines to develop a spa modality based on traditional Hilot techniques, which they could offer in their menu of services. While the original Hilot Wellness sequence he developed was true to tradition, the resulting regulations that was developed by the TESDA committee was an amalgamation of Hilot principles and massage techniques put forward by committee members who were non-practitioners of Hilot.

Undeterred, Maestro Boy continued his advocacy with Association of Traditional Health Aid Givers, Inc. He continued to teach both traditional Hilot-herbal healing, as well as the Hilot Wellness sequence for the spa, and represented the Philippines in the International Spa Convention in Singapore. He also explored collaborations with organizations in Germany, Japan, and the United States to bring Hilot to these countries.

Fajardo became one of the founding Board of Trustees of the Philippine Institute of Traditional and Alternative Health Care (PITAHC), after actively being part of the groundwork for the TAMA Act. In 2013, he was part of the PITAHC Technical Working Group tasked to draw up the National Competency Standards for Hilot, and in 2016, became one of the members of the National Certification Committee for Hilot. In 2017, he gave a lecture on Hilot during the ASEAN Health Wisdom Conference in Prachinburi, Thailand.

In his 51 years of healing and teaching, Fajardo founded and led two Hilot organizations (ATHAG and MABISAH); mentored manghihilot who apprenticed with him in ATHAG; developed a Hilot wellness sequence which they taught to thousands of therapists, and authored a book, Hilot: The Science of the Ancient Filipino Healing Arts (2013) with Ms. Aleli Pansacola.