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Mangkukulam
Mangkukulam is the Tagalog word for a witch who does harm by sympathetic magic, called pangkukulam. People fear them and go to healers to counter their work. A Spanish friar, Plasencia, wrote the word as mancocolam in 1589.
Folklore is retold; versions differ.
Sources: Wikipedia: Witchcraft in the Philippines (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikidata (CC0)
The story
A mangkukulam is a person said to cast harm by magic. The practice is called kulam. In Philippine belief, it works by sympathetic magic. The practitioner uses an image of the victim, such as a doll, or an object, such as a pot of water, with hair or nail clippings. People believe whatever happens to the image will happen to the person. Some tellers say the target is a wrongdoer, such as a thief or a land grabber.
Names change by region. Visayans speak of a mambabarang, who is said to use insects such as beetles tied to a strand of the victim's hair. Tagalog speakers also say manggagaway. Ilocanos say managtanem. Many Filipinos also know of the albularyo, a healer who may be asked to remove a curse. A counter-spell is called sumbalik, and tellers say it can hurt the caster. Siquijor is a place often linked with these healers.
Spanish writers noted this kind of sorcery as early as the 1600s. Francisco Combes wrote about it. The belief is old and still told, but there is no proof that such magic works.