Is Culion still the Island of the Living Dead?

Culion is in blue In October of 2006, I visited the remote islands of Cuyo and Culion in Palawan for a photography assignment and passed Negros and Iloilo in transit. This is my account of that journey.

This is the 14th of a series If you’re thinking of zombies, I forgive you for it. Maybe too much horror films and cable shows might have fried your brain that it’s stuck with the evil dead genre? No, this is not about zombies and witchcraft but about disease afflicted persons forced into exile.

“No, this is not about zombies and witchcraft…” Culion, for a time was nicknamed, unfortunately, The Island of the Living Dead. Not that creatures of the underworld roamed the streets at night or scared its inhabitants but it was an act of government that made it compulsory for lepers in the country, from Luzon to Mindanao, to be segregated into this forlorn of places. Leprosy is an ancient scourge and before the medical breakthroughs in the middle of the 20th century, there were no known cures. Sufferers were treated like pariahs and left deformed for life.

At the turn of the century during the American occupation, there was an estimated 4,000 lepers nationwide. In 1902, forced segregation was decreed and the first batch was sent in 1906 from Cebu. Authorities were empowered to apprehend, detain and isolate them. Around the 1930’s, there were about 16,000 patients and it was the biggest leper colony in the world. This period was one of the darkest years for the sufferers as they, at the prime of their lives, have to leave family, possessions and professions to be “exiled.”

For most, to be sent to Culion meant spending the rest of their lives in the island and perhaps grow old, die and be buried in its soil. The forced segregation however helped make strides in the treatment and cure of leprosy. The colony was one big laboratory where experts went to study this disease. During World War II, while the island was spared from the casualties of war since the Japanese were afraid of it, they were however under an embargo that as much as about 700 patients died of hunger.

After the war, sulfone as treatment was introduced and this resulted to many “negatives” among patients. It was because of this that, in 1952, the segregation law was revised and 12 years later, another act was promulgated that further liberalized the confinement of leprosy. With the success of multi-therapy and subsequent elimination of leprosy in the colony, Culion was declared a municipality in 1987.

It’s a long way for the people of Culion. Those who were cured decided to stay in the island for good. Some of their families followed them and settled in as well as other migrants. From their dark days of being segregated, they have lived, got cured, flourished and prospered. This small town maybe remote and has a dark history but it has contributed greatly to the understanding and treatment of leprosy worldwide. Now, those memories are enshrined in the museum. Its archives a rich testimony to the suffering and eventual liberation of its patients and of the island.

It’s an island of the living dead no more!

To know more about Culion and its hopes, visit culion.net.

Note: To understand why fortress churches were built in Cuyo, Agutaya and Culion, here’s a quick introduction of the Muslim slave raiding in the Philippines: Tea + Sulu = Miag-ao Church.