DESPITE his age, a faith healer who will turn 101 years old on Jan. 8 has vowed not to stop healing people who come to him for help.
He explained that some illnesses involving bad spirits cannot be cured by modern medicine.
Sun.Star Cebu revisited Egino Casas Peñas, or Tatay Pino, in his house in Maghaway, Talisay City where he has lived since July 2010.
The house was donated by businessman Norberto Quisumbing Jr. as a gift to Tatay Pino during his 100th birthday last year. It stands on a 150-square-meter lot donated by lawyer Manuel Go.
Tatay Pino said that since Sun.Star Cebu featured his faith-healing practice last Aug. 22, there were days when as many as 150 to 450 people with various illnesses waited in line.
He said that because of the number of people, he often forgot to take both his breakfast and lunch, especially if those who sought his help were children.
Tatay Pino said most of the sick that came to him were possessed by evil spirits or lost souls, or “gikalag” in Cebuano.
The most recent of Tatay Pino’s high-profile patients was a businesswoman who was confined in the intensive care unit of an uptown hospital in Cebu City early last month and needed surgery because of a bladder problem.
Before the scheduled operation, the businesswoman instructed her personnel to fetch Tatay Pino, who refused to go with them because dozens of patients were waiting in line.
Instead, Tatay Pino just sent his handkerchief and told the personnel to place it on her head then on the businesswoman’s stomach.
Fifteen minutes after later, she felt relieved.
The businesswoman was able to check out of the hospital and celebrated Christmas and her birthday last Dec. 27 at home, said Pino’s daughter Anecita Peñas Gabato.
“I was not the one who healed her. It was God,” Tatay Pino said in Cebuano.
Those who seek Tatay Pino’s help believe he has the power to heal through faith in God, an observer said.
In his faith healing practice, Tatay Pino also uses a mysterious bamboo stick, three round stones and an old card with an image of national hero Dr. Jose Rizal.
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on January 05, 2011.
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