BRIDGING THE GAP
Tan Osting: Superman of Antique
About a hundred and fifty-five years ago, in the province of Antique lived a man named Agustin Baladjay, more popularly known as Tan Osting, reported to be a busalian. A busalian is generally a babaylan but one who possesses supernatural powers or attributes. The busalian's extraordinary powers are supposed to be a bugay or divine gift to a worthy person because of his good-spirit and kind-heart. The powers may also be derived from sinagod (literally, cared for) or a friendly tamawo or spirit-being. Or, it may also be taken from rare or unusual creations of nature such as a stone with two holes or a vine without nodes. These objects are usually kept as anting-anting or talisman.
A busalian may possess more than one super-skill. The most common are super-strength, super-speed and invulnerability to any kind of weapons. Other supernatural powers are invisibility, gravity-defying stunts like levitation, walking on fire or at the surface of water, straining a boiling cauldron of molasses with bare hands, sitting on a spear's sharp end, healing wounds by licking, hypnosis, causing the rain to fall, and many more.
In a study made by Milagros Geremia, former Research Associate at the Center for West Visayan Studies, U.P. in the Visayas, she found out that Tan Osting was from Sibalom, Antique. Tales she gathered in Antique reveal that Tan Osting seemed to stand out from among the other busalians in Panay. This is so because of the combination of supernatural powers that he was reputed to possess and how he employed those powers to escape from being captured by the Spanish authorities who considered him an enemy. It must be borne in mind that the Spaniards tried to stamp out babaylanism in Panay and in the rest of the Philippine archipelago. This is because the babaylans were at the helms of those who greatly resisted Spanish rule.
One tale of Tan Osting's great escape from the Spaniards tells how the colonial soldiers pursued him to his kamalig or hut. They were sure he was inside his hut for they saw him. Furthermore, they also noticed smoke billowing out from his dalapugan or hearth. However, when the soldiers entered to capture him, Tan Osting was nowhere to be found. The dalapugan was cold and appeared abandoned, with a tomato plant growing in it and already having fruits. It was also told that Tan Osting could scatter labhang or rice chaffs that turned into swarm of bees and attacked the soldiers who were after him.
Folks in Antique say that Tan Osting obtained a magic cigar from a mantiw or giant whom he befriended. By smoking the magic cigar, Tan Osting could gain extraordinary strength which enabled him to lift heavy stones and to vanquish enemies. It is told that one day, a Spanish official visited Sibalom and ordered Tan Osting to bring his horse for forage while he consulted the parish priest. When he returned, he was angered to find out that Tan Osting did not follow his order. The Spanish official got so angry that he dragged Tan Osting to the nearby river to drown him. But before that happened, Tan Osting made a last request to smoke his cigar and he was able to overpower the Spaniard who drowned instead. Because of this incident, Tan Osting was imprisoned in the capital town of San Jose de Buenavista.
Yet, Tan Osting was able to escape while in prison. It has been told that he yawned three times and out of nowhere, a band of about 300 men came and aided the busalian in his escape to the mountains. Well, the Spanish provincial government sent armed troops to the mountains to capture him dead or alive but he was never caught due to his supernatural powers. It was not until a plot hatched by the Spaniards who poisoned him that Tan Osting met death.
The present generation who grew up in a scientific mold may find these stories about Tan Osting and other babaylans incredible. But for the folks of the past, supernatural powers found in extraordinary individuals were as real as the evils that these special powers were said to have fought. That these stories were believed to be credible by the folks of yesteryears speak highly of resistance to the Spanish and American rulers and of their desire to be free and independent.