Siquijor is known for 'black magic'. That black magic is actually ancient shamanism (some of the stuff they still do there ie blow smoke and or blow bubbles to a straw in a glass cup is very similar to Spanish accounts of priest/priestesses/shamans did to 'heal')...a lot of their 'magic' is now mixed with Catholicism.
Often times when 'historians' or anthropologists are asked (esp. Filipino ones) they give BS answers like 'well because they said there's energy in that island' etc. The simple fact is you read Spanish accounts and it's directly quoted by Chirino is simple: they didn't have enough priests/presence on the island and that in turn IMHO created much room for babaylans (ancient priestesses) to slowly phase in with Christianity unlike the well know purge in many other parts of the Philippines. Also perhaps in Siquijor there are much more of the species that ancient Filipino herbologist found to be 'cures' present there (I can't confirm).
But TBH this 'folk healers' aka 'quack doctors' if you want to be so blunt are actually pretty common in the Philippines. Even in the area in Manila I grew up in it's not uncommon for people to go to a manghihilot (hilot is ancient Filipino folk medicine similar to chiropractic; the belief is similar to a combination of East Asian idea of 'qi flow' and or Western pre-modern idea of 'humours').
Not to mention that they decided to design their Maria (actually effigy of a St. Rita de Cascia) looking like this. It probably didn't help their image. -lmao
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