For months, the entire nation has watched with a mix of bated breath, profound sadness, and fervent prayer as Kris Aquino, the “Queen of All Media,” wages the most difficult battle of her life. From her self-imposed exile in the United States, she has shared periodic, heartbreaking updates of a body at war with itself. We have seen the numbers, the weight loss, the sterile hospital rooms, and the small, brave smiles. Her fight is a public and painful one.

But this week, that deeply human medical drama has been violently hijacked by a narrative so bizarre, so dark, and so uniquely Filipino that it has stunned the public into a new kind of silence. A shocking new report, encapsulated in a viral video, has surfaced with a terrifying allegation: that Kris Aquino’s suffering is not, in fact, medical.

The report alleges it is the result of “kulam.” Bewitchment.

And the story does not stop there. It names a perpetrator. The person now being accused of placing this “curse” on Kris Aquino is none other than veteran actress Elizabeth Oropesa.

This single, explosive claim has opened a dark Pandora’s box, shifting the conversation from one of medicine and faith to one of dark arts and personal vendettas. It is a story that reveals more about our cultural anxieties and the toxic nature of public feuds than it does about any medical reality.

To understand how a story this wild could gain traction, one must first understand the “why.” Why Elizabeth Oropesa? To the purveyors of this gossip, the “motive” is clear. Oropesa has, in recent years, been one of the most vocal and sharp-tongued critics of Kris Aquino and her family. Their feud is not a simple showbiz spat; it is deeply rooted in political divides. Oropesa has been a staunch and outspoken supporter of the Marcos and Duterte administrations, political forces that stand in direct, historical opposition to the Aquino legacy.

Oropesa has not minced words. She has, in the past, made public statements that were highly critical of Kris, her family’s political history, and her public persona. In the toxic ecosystem of online feuds, this makes her “public enemy number one” for Aquino loyalists. It is a feud built on the deepest, most polarizing divisions in modern Filipino society.

This is the “evidence” that the purveyors of the “kulam” story are using as their foundation. To them, this is not a coincidence. They see a woman (Kris) suffering from a mysterious, complex, and unyielding illness that has baffled doctors. They see another woman (Elizabeth) who has publicly and vocally expressed her disdain for the first. In a world where it is easier to believe in a villain than in random, chaotic tragedy, the gossip-mongers have drawn a straight, dark line.

They have, in effect, accused Elizabeth Oropesa of graduating from political criticism to supernatural warfare.

This is where the story leaves the rails of reality and plummets into a realm of dangerous speculation. The source of this claim, a YouTube video, frames it as a question: “Kinulam Ba O Hindi?” (Bewitched Or Not?). But the very act of asking the question is, in itself, an act of accusation. It plants the seed. It gives a name and a face to the formless, terrifying enemy that is Kris’s illness.

But what is the “totoong sakit?” What is the “real sickness” that the source video claims to reveal?

The heartbreaking reality is far more complex and terrifying than any story of a “curse.” The “real sickness” is not one, but multiple, severe, and life-threatening autoimmune disorders. Kris Aquino herself has been diagnosed with Eosinophilic Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis (EGPA), a rare and aggressive condition that causes inflammation in blood vessels, potentially restricting blood flow to vital organs. She is battling a cascade of autoimmune failures, where her own body, her own immune system, has become her greatest adversary.

Her body is, quite literally, attacking itself.

This is the truth. Her battle is not against a doll, a pin, or a chanted curse. Her battle is being waged on a cellular level. It is a fight being led by the world’s top specialists in immunology, rheumatology, and hematology. Her enemy is not Elizabeth Oropesa; her enemy is a cluster of misfiring protein markers and an inflammatory response that will not stop.

Kris’s journey has been one of agonizing trial and error. She has subjected herself to a battery of treatments, from chemotherapy to biologic infusions, all in a desperate attempt to find a combination that will halt her body’s relentless self-destruction. Each update she shares is a lesson in medical terminology, but also in profound vulnerability. She has shared her moments of despair, her allergic reactions to medicines, her painful blood draws, and her ever-declining weight.

And in every post, she has been crystal clear about why she is fighting. She is not fighting for fame, or for politics, or to answer her critics. She is fighting for her sons, Josh and Bimby. Her singular, raw, and powerful motivation is to live long enough to see them become the men they are meant to be. This is a mother’s primal fight for survival.

This is the reality that the “kulam” allegation so cruelly and disrespectfully ignores.

It attempts to reduce a profound medical struggle, one that is documented and understood by science, into a petty, supernatural squabble between two aging celebrities. It is a malicious narrative that does a disservice to both women.

It disrespects Kris, invalidating her very real, very physical pain. It dismisses the work of her medical team and the agonizing, scientific reality of her condition, reframing it as a soap opera plot.

And, in a strange way, it also victimizes Elizabeth Oropesa. To be critical of a political family is one thing. To be accused, in the public sphere, of using “witchcraft” to cause a person’s life-threatening illness is a monstrous allegation. It is a modern-day witch hunt, where political criticism is equated with a dark, supernatural, and harmful act. It is a dangerous, unproven leap that drags an actress into a narrative of profound darkness.

Why does this “kulam” story resonate at all? Because, in our culture, “kulam” has always been the placeholder for the unexplainable. When modern medicine fails, when a person’s health declines so rapidly and mysteriously, it is a deep, cultural comfort for some to find a reason that is not random. To blame a “curse” is, in a twisted way, more comforting than to accept the terrifying reality that our bodies can simply, and tragically, fail us.

But Kris Aquino’s illness is not unexplainable. It is rare, it is difficult, and it is aggressive, but it is known to science. The “totoong sakit” is a medical fact, not a supernatural opinion.

The real story here is not one of a “curse.” The real story is one of a mother’s resilience. It is the story of Kris Aquino, a woman who has lived her entire life in the spotlight, now using that same spotlight to educate the public on rare diseases. It is the story of her unwavering fight to stay alive for her children.

The “kulam” allegation is a dark, distracting, and ultimately disrespectful sideshow. It is a product of a toxic online culture that would rather invent a villain than send a prayer. The real, “shocking” truth is not that one actress “bewitched” another. The shocking truth is the silent, daily, and courageous battle Kris Aquino is waging against her own body, a battle she refuses to lose.