Beth Gersulla, a local seer, had a chilling vision that the Iraqi dictator could have survived a massive airstrike last April 7.
She herself admits not knowing how she could divine such things, but that she feels "possessed" by the Sto. Ninõ and speaks like a little child when under his "spell."
Instead, she made a zigzag motion with her right hand on a table top, tracing a small letter "s" — meaning, Saddam Hussein is alive and frequently moving underground in Baghdad.
"Dai pa gadan si Saddam (Saddam is not yet dead)," she said in the dialect, adding the war in Iraq is not yet over.
US intelligence believes he died with his sons and senior aides after a B-1 bomber dropped four 2,000-pound "bunker-buster" bombs on an exclusive section of the Iraqi capital.
But with no hard evidence of his death, Saddam Hussein’s purported demise could be left to countless speculations even though top US officials said that his DNA could be identified.
Gersulla also predicted that President Arroyo, who enlisted Philippine support in the "coalition of the willing" in the US-led effort to topple Saddam for his alleged weapons of mass destruction, will run in the 2004 elections because the US will support her and "she has done a lot for the people in so short a time."
She also predicts that Mayon Volcano will erupt without warning.
Gersulla said these were among her "vibrations" about the conflict in Iraq and the coming political events in the country.
Persons healed by Gersulla noted that she had correctly predicted the fire that occurred in Barangay Bagtang as well the sudden eruption of Mayon before July 2002.
Gersulla, who is married with five children, was among 12 faith healers and 43 visitors seeking treatment who gathered at the Cagsawa Resort in Barangay Busay Tuesday morning for the second anniversary of the open healing session sponsored by the tourism council.
Although different faith healers showed their various techniques in diagnosing and healing diseases and ailments, they all confessed that the "gift of healing" comes from God, or Kagurangan in Bicol’s native dialect.
Before a burning candle, and an image of Jesus Christ carved on black wood, Gersulla breaks an egg and spreads its contents on a white plate to scrutinize any shapes therein.
She claims to have received the gift in Sucat, Parañaque in 1986.
By closely examining the shape and texture of the egg’s contents, she can "diagnose" the disease or ailment of a patient, locally called here as santiguar.
She urged those who asked her help to pray always because the "666" or Antichrist is already here.
To reduce high cholesterol, she recommends boiled papaya leaves.
During the interview, she took a pouch made of cloth and a piece of stone and pressed it as if it had a keypad to text a message to the Child Jesus that she is doing all she can to help others even if many still doubt her "gift."