A patient prays and touches a crystal before consultation.

It is by no means comparable to the air-conditioned doctors’ clinics in the top hospitals. The office of the FGO Herbal Foundation is located in an old building somewhere along a busy section of Roxas Boulevard, near the Baclaran Church – practically the same area that was called “gritty” by Bourne Legacy director Tony Gilroy. The waiting area is a collection of chairs, and upon the MB team’s visit, several patients are already waiting for their turn at consultation. Aside from the man sitting at a large table, presumably to act as the receptionist, a dog traipses around to greet you. Welcome to the alternative side of healing.  

It is likewise not comparable to the well-appointed, lemongrass scented spas of the metro, because there is no shower room, and the therapy happens behind a small curtained partition; one must sit and not lie down as the therapists administer the massage. Before you are hooked up to a curiosity that serves as a ventosa machine, you are instructed to sit down on a plastic chair in front of an altar with a statue of the Virgin Mary and touch a giant crystal, where you are supposed to concentrate on what you are feeling in your body at the moment.

Once you confirm that there are areas in your body that tingle or feel hot/cold, you are then led behind the partition and ordered to strip from the waist up. Everything must go, even your undergarment. At first, you sit, half-naked and self-conscious, but soon you succumb to the pleasurable warmth coming from the machine, which acts as sort of a vacuum cleaner, sucking out all the lamig from your body. After the ventosa session, a plastic gloved attendant rubs you down with Fely G. Ong’s patented Krystall Oil. As the massage ensues, the attendant talks about changes you can make in your lifestyle to prevent those aches and pains that brought you into the clinic. The amount of water that seeps through your pores from the brisk rubbing is confirmed to be, indeed, lamig.

You emerge from behind the partition oddly refreshed, even though you are practically covered in oil. Then, you might be lucky enough to get a consult with Miss Ong herself, who can recommend products from her herbal medicine line to help rid your body of toxins and whatever ails you.

“I have been skeptical of doctors for a long time. My aunt taught me the basics of alternative healing, and I studied a lot more on my own,” she shares. Her practice is a mix of crystals, acupressure, and herbal medicine. She believes in Filipino concepts of lamig and pasma, saying that there is always a need to balance hot and cold, or yin and yang, in the body, and cautions against washing hands after ironing, leaving your hair dripping wet down your back, and taking the wrong kinds of foods at the wrong time. She is actually spot on with several of her suggestions, such as allowing a little dirt to enter your life. “Pag masyadong malinis, lalong nagkakasakit,” she explains, echoing what modern researchers are now saying about bacterial resistance.  

“You can get sick if there is no balance in your body,” she intones, and recommends several herbal products that she says she formulated herself and is only available through her office and their distributors. Among her bestsellers is the aforementioned Krystall Oil, which serves as a sort of cure-all for headaches, sinusitis, and colds -- all the way down to tuberculosis, hemorrhoids, and paralysis. We were told that a purchase of this miracle oil at her office can entitle one to the massage session for free. She also has eye drops to promote clear vision, a foot soak powder for relaxation, tea that can cleanse the liver and treat coughs and colds, and different pills for almost any ailment possible.

Understandably, most of her patients are the underserved of society; those who, like her, do not believe in doctors – or are those who cannot afford a specialist’s fees. They are the ones who flock to her seminars, listen to her radio guestings, and give their testimonials about how the company’s products were able to cure their illnesses.  One of her high-profile supporters was the late radio personality Dely Magpayo, whom, Miss Ong said, she would have been able to revive from her coma had she been given enough time.

Among the mementoes tucked in her files is a letter from a former health secretary lauding her efforts to reach out to the grass roots level. With a growing gap between the health services and the marginalized people of society, and the renewed interest in alternative medicine, outfits like the FGO Herbal Foundation might just be worth looking into.

FGO Herbal Foundation is located at 727 Roxas Boulevard Paranaque, telephone number (02) 853-0917, email fgofoundation@yahoo.com.