Scary notes from Davao

The following are stories that were related to me by Mang Lando, a taxi driver from Davao del Sur. The stories come from his memorable experience as a boy during the early 70’s in rural Bansalan, Davao del Sur where he experienced supernatural events.

The following narrations have been translated and edited from the original Visayan version;

 The Manananggal

 When I was a young man in Davao del Sur during the 70’s, my friends and I used to go out at night, usually during full moons to hunt for spiders in the forest. Spider fights were very popular among children during those days as we would look for them in the woods in order to sell them.

One particular night, while we were out hunting, I was particularly drawn to a certain shrub that was peculiar to a certain breed of spider. As I was looking, I was surprised to find a white form, actually a dress (from the waist down to the feet), standing near the bush. My surprise turned into shock as I found out that it was a woman’s body, severed from the waist to the head. I also saw its intestines, organs and blood on top of its dreadfully severed waist. Her legs, ankle and feet were quite visible in the moonlight that I immediately realized it was a Manananggal (self-segmenter). This was this was a type of fearsome aswang with a huge bat’s wings that hunts out in the forests at night.

I shouted for my friends and as they saw it, they panicked and started running fearfully back to the village. And so did I.

We ran and ran until we reached our houses and told our elders about it. They told us not to venture into that area at night anymore and that we should be preparing ourselves in case it attacks our village.

 

Aswang

During the early 70’s in Davao del Sur, electricity was not yet a popular commodity in the barrios. People still used the old, reliable wicker lamps (this was fueled by gas). As it was, the village was relatively dark at night. When you would look through your hut’s window, you would scarcely notice the few glows in the dark as night shadows would creepingly envelope the entire village including the nearby woods.

On this particular night there had been a strange but fearful event. We were all awakened in the middle of the night by a shrill-pitched scream. My parents, brothers and sisters all awoke; lay half-frozen in our sleeping mats. It was a kind of cry that made you shiver. It was surreal.

Barely out of my teens, my father told me to get up and go with him to the barrio-lieutenant as to make inquiries. As we were walking down the rough, barely paved road, we were surprised to see villagers walking towards us, carrying well-lit lamps and sharpened bamboo spikes. There were men, women and elders from our community. We saw our friends.

Instantly, we recognized our barrio-lieutenant. He was an old, hardened man, shouldering the front lines. He was flanked by his men. Armed with bolos, knives and bamboo spears. The women carried lamps. Our barrio-lieutenant briefly mentioned that they were on their way to a woman’s house to investigate the scream. We told him it was our duty help.

As we were nearing the woman’s hut, we heard muffled cries. The barrio-lieutenant and the men crashed open the wooden door and stumbled inside a dark room. And for the very first time, what we saw was a scene that we would never forget for a lifetime. As our lamps lit the darkened room, we saw a pregnant woman (the hut-owner) fearfully sitting on her bed. Another woman was standing near her, choking the pregnant woman’s neck. It was a struggle between the pregnant woman her night visitor. But this other woman was not just another woman. She turned over to us and from what we saw, she had glaring black eyes, her hair was standing on ends as if it were strings of a guitar, her nails were unnaturally long, dark and sharp. She had fangs, much like a dog’s but looked sharper, somewhat unholy. I was beginning to be afraid. The men, our barrio-lieutenant were caught off guard during the moment. We were stunned. This had been the creature that had been roaming the hills and mountains for many a year. It had reputedly preyed on children, pregnant women and farm animals. Now, we stood face to face with it.

It was the Aswang.

She was like the Devil himself, says Lando.

Suddenly, I heard the barrio-lieutenant spoke in a firm, solid voice. The barrio-lieutenant was not a stranger to this ancient evil that had been plaguing towns and villages hence. There had been stories in the past and he had as much experience of them in his younger years. A veteran of rural myths, this creature was no stranger to the old man.

“Hoy, aswang, pahawa diri!” he spoke. He was telling her to leave.

I saw the aswang momentarily stopped what she was doing. She was looking intently at the old barrio-lieutenant, as if assessing his presence.

I shivered (nahadlok ko).

“Ug dili ka muhawa diri, patyon ka gyud namo”! (if you will not leave, we will be forced to kill you)

“Ug bisan pa nga maka-ikyas ka, itug-an ka gyud namu sa mga laing dapit aron nga maka-bantay sila sa imong kadautan”

(And even if you should be able to escape, we will tell all the other neighboring barrios of your presence that you would not be able to live and disguise yourself as a human being anywhere near this region)

Eliciting no response, the old man suddenly nodded to the men to point their spears at her. It was at this junction that I saw with my own eyes, the aswang’s hair immediately grew back into its old form. Her fangs and long claw-like nails retracted. Her eyebrows thinned and her eyes grew smaller. She withdrew her hands from the woman’s neck.

She became human.

And then she cried.

But our barrio-lieutenant would not be deceived. Creatures such as these have been known to ask for mercy when cornered and especially identified but would not relent if there was any opportunity for killing.

“Hala, hawa!” Sibat na! Ayaw na kuhaa ang mga butang nimu. Lakaw na didto! (he told her to leave immediately and not to bring any of her belongings)

As I was looking from behind the jolted men, I saw the aswang slowly stood. And she turned to walk towards the door. We parted to give her space to walk out.

We saw her walking. She never looked back.

We all saw her eventually disappear by the country road, towards the darkness.

The pregnant woman was eventually administered into by the village arbularios (healers).

 

Strange Aswang Occurences in the Philippine Islands

A “manananggal” image uploaded in the internet. Presumably taken with a Sony handycam with night-day vision. This was supposed to be taken from a remote province in the north of Pangasinan in Central Luzon. The image became viral in the local chat-rooms years back.

Real or not, the Manananggal would virtually look like this one when actually encountered. Witnesses to many horrific experiences would describe a similar appearance.

Aswangs supposedly drain their victims of bodily fluids. Here lies an image that portray an alleged “victim” of an aswang attack. The image was allegedly captured somewhere in Mindanao, presumably between Cagayan de Oro and Ozamiz City in Mindanao.

“BOY KILLED BY AN ASWANG in ILOILO”!.  His mother during an interview revealed that the boy had been playful during the night but was surprised to find him lifeless the next morning. Observe the bitten face of the child. Image taken from a local Iloilo City daily on the internet.

Dark Mythology

The stories that follow were researched and compiled by the late Professor Maximo D. Ramos.

Professor Ramos was often called as the Dean of Lower Philippine Mythology as he researched tirelessly and often travelled to many places in the country in the 60’s, documenting stories of the Philippine version of the supernatural and the bizarre. His works have been printed and published by the Philippine Folklore Society. Copyrighted 1971.

In one of his works, he mentions the myth of the Aswang (the Filipino Vampire). From among his notes, he characterizes the aswang as typically being females who appear to be “pretty maidens by day and marry young men so as to be in a strategic position to suck their blood by night.” In the evenings, they fly away to some far barrio or village and often victimize unsuspecting travelers or children, feasting on their blood and internal organs thereafter returning home from sunrise in order hide their true identities.

At night, the aswang is said to look like a huge bird, sitting on rooftops and allowing their long, slender-like proboscis to slip inside the small roof openings and onto their unsuspecting sleeping victims below. Its tongue is alleged to prick the jugular veins of its intended victim and at times, enter orifices of pregnant women to sip out their unborn, fresh fetuses.

There is another type of aswang that also exists in the Philippine islands that is called the Manananggal. A manananggal (self-segmenter) is most often a woman, who at night goes to some dark part of the woods or forest, and after uttering a mysterious incantation, allows her upper torso to be split from her lower body. She then grows huge bat-like wings, her nails growing abnormally long and sharp and then her eyes and face metamorphose into a devil-like feature. She flies at night usually on full moons to hunt.

As Aswang is reputedly known throughout, as it is feared in the Philippine islands. As early as 1564 when the Legazpi expedition made a landfall at Leyte and Samar, the officers and men were warned by the Samareno natives from venturing far out after sunset. It is said that supernatural creatures called “asuangs” hunt by night and will make no remorse killing even “armed” strangers. There was a report made by the commander of the expedition to Queen Isabella as to this particular “phenomena”.

The National Museum of the Philippines in Manila also houses a “memento” that attests to this intriguing document.

The original transcripts of the same stories were derived from  Filipino regional dialects such as Hiligaynon, Cebuano, Waray and Tagalog and thereby translated into English.

A bout with an Aswang, story from Antique, Panay Island

This is a story that spread throughout my town. In 1960 Juan left his wife and his child to buy some cigarettes in the town. It was around 9 P.M. when an aswang came and wrestled with Juan’s wife. The object of the aswang was the two-year old child of Juan. Juan’s wife fought back but could not take hold of her oily body.

Then she bit the thumb of the aswang and the aswang went away. She reported the incident to her husband and a few days later Juan prepared a good luncheon. Juan invited the suspected aswang to eat with them, for it was the child’s birthday. The aswang was happy that she could carry out her plans but didn’t know that Juan prepared food harmful to the aswang. When the aswang sat at the table, her eyes grew big on seeing the food with spices and salt. She tried to get away but Juan drew his rifle and told the aswang to get out of the town or be killed.

Aswang at home on a Friday, story from Antique, Panay Island

Where we live, though it isn’t Capiz, there are many aswang, especially during the peace time (before World War II). Our neighbor, Manang Lucing, didn’t believe in aswang or wakwak. But one of the people in our place Julia was reputed to be a wakwak and the people knew about this.

One Friday Manang Lucing went to Julia’s home in the fields to borrow an embroidery design. It was six o’clock when she got there. She knocked at the door but nobody answered. But the door was not locked. She entered the house. Since nobody was there, she opened one of the doors and saw Julia sitting in the corner with head down on the floor as if she were praying.

She got near and put Julia’s head up, and she saw that Julia’s thick hair was as hard as guitar strings and her eyes were said those of the owl, Manang Lucing saw her image inverted in Julia’s eyes. And beside Julia was a bottle of oil. She was very scared and ran. She never went back to Julia’s home.

Aswang at 5:00 AM

I heard his story from Lucio Labonete, my brother’s father-in-law, when my sister and I spent our vacation in their place. I was a third-year high school student when he told us this. Labonete is from Samar and has travelled all over the Visayan region. He is a wanderer, and this explains why he has reached Sorsogon and then Camarines Norte in the Bikol provinces. He settled in Camarines Norte for quite a long time when he became a widower. It was there in Camarines Norte that we were able to have contact with him because of my brother’s affinity to him. He is a short man but healthy and has good physique which shows he is hard working. He has many stories about aswang and he seems to believe them because he talks from experience. He told us many stories but this is the only one I can remember:

When he was still a boy of about 9 years old, he used to go to the farm as early as five in the morning to pasture the carabaos. One early morning while he was doing his daily routine, he heard some crushing and rushing sounds not far from his place. He went there to see what caused the sounds not far from his place. He went there to see what caused the sounds and he saw his father’s comadre learning to fly by swaying her hands up and down. Her hair was standing like wires and her eyes were sharp. She raised them and then lowered them again. The woman saw him and so he ran home and told his father everything that he had seen. His father in turn went to the woman and told her that if she wanted not to be known by her real identity, she should not molest and harm his family. The woman replied that she would not molest and harm his family because she knew that they were compadres.

 Almost an Aswang

In a barrio of Kalibo, aklan, a girl named angela was almost turned into a wakwak because she ate something that got mixed with her food.

The next day, her parents immediately sought an herb doctor who, after making his examination, said that Angela was a victim of the wakwak. The herb doctor told the parents to get a fresh egg and mayana ( Coleus Blumei Benth.- a medicinal and ornamental herb), and after placing them together in a container, divided the egg, and everybody was surprised because the egg contained plenty of small worms, believed to be converted into food by the wakwak. This saved her from becoming a wakwak or aswang.

An Aswang Town Mayor

There was a barrio in Capiz where almost all the inhabitants were aswang. The government sent seven policemen to investigate the matter. These policemen went to the mayor and requested that they spend the night in his house.

The mayor welcomed them and had food prepared for them. Their bedroom and bedding were also prepared. The policemen agreed among themselves that none of them should sleep that night and should watch instead.

At midnight the door of their room opened and someone got in. Together they tried to catch him but he flew off swiftly.

They found out that the mayor was an aswang too, a manananngal. Next morning the policemen left for home and narrated their experience.

Hollow’s Welcome

Omet Onse, the Agung player

Bagobo giangan Omet Onse +, playing the agung (image taken in 2008 using N95 Nokia Phone model)

Bagobos are such prolific agung (ahung) players. If you had that chance of visiting Davao City here in Mindanao and checking out tribal communities in the area, you will find that some lumad families own an agung set. Chances are, it had been handed down from their ancestors, of whose agung set dated back from pre-colonial times. By tradition, a family who owns such musical bronze pieces was required that at least one of them knows how to play it.

In the upper Baguio district of Davao in the family of Onse, (descendants of Datu Abeng of Calinan), one such player was a Bagobo-giangan named Omet Onse. He was one of the two in the Onse family (Ambit Onse being the other and now deceased), who could still play the agung.  Omet played pieces from an almost bygone era of Bagobo life. Musical pieces that are familiar to many Bagobos would include the tagung-gu, sowroy, tinok-ka, inday-inday and many meaningful others. He was also a teacher to Dabawenyong Lumad.

But sadly, last Tuesday, this month of October of 2012, he expired on the account of a lingering illness, called cancer.

You see, here lies our predicament as a people: as we struggle to preserve our last remaining cultures, most of us are overtaken by disease, poverty and most of the time, death. Compounding the struggle is the aggressive advancement of both crass commercialism and aggressive evangelization into lumad communities. Truth be painfully told, new generations of lumad children are straying away from old traditions. Even knowledgeable agung players are fast dwindling.

The confluence of all these things grieves me and makes me reflect on how I can best help my own community in preserving a dying culture, using the talents and skills that I have earned from the best of both worlds: my culture and my modern education.

As for Omet Onse, he will be missed as with all the other Datus and Chieftains who have struggled to preserve the many unwritten stories, the music and the gallant way of life of the lumad.

Lumad Children

Lumad children are a very important part of the tribal community. They not only represent a family’s stature but more importantly, the continuance of the lumad way of life. Similar with other cultures from around the world, children are an assurance that life must go on: that a community will continue to thrive on its own ideals, culture and identity.

In the Bagobo way, children popularly learn by “doing or through oral instruction”. Adults typically show them how a thing is to be done and the children just follow suit. Planting crops, weaving, hunting or even using the guidance of stars and planets (baatik’ ) as basis for agriculture are taught directly through a demonstration of that skill.

In the past, before the coming of the Spaniards, there were no classrooms as there were neither formal education to speak of. Everything had to be learned from direct experience. As a way of example, old Bagobos “teach” their young not to hunt for frogs in the river at certain times of the month.

Typically considered a house meal during the past, frogs are hunted by the Bagobos in the river at night where frogs are easy to catch by “spearing them” (manuho’g bak-bak). However, during certain lunar cycles, when the moon is at its zenith, certain poisonous snakes hunt in the river and may cause untimely deaths among the people hunting in the vicinity. During the occasion, there will be a scarcity of frogs in that river and that the usual noisy and “croaky” ambiance of that area in the river will be replaced by a “deathly silence”. Here, frog hunting will have to be discouraged among the men and the eager young boys.

In many occasions too, children are taught during evenings, but this usually involves teachings of morality, belief and stories of their ancestors. Since the day is generally reserved for the demonstration of a physical skill or technique, the nighttime is used for giving oral advice to young people.

One of the special things that are being taught to children during the evenings are lessons on morality. They are taught to respect their parents, grandparents and other people in the community. They are being taught that respect is the foundation by which a community is built. Disregard it and everything becomes chaotic or even violent.

Children are typically chastised on the value of hard work (in the fields or house chores), to observe  fair speech that would not offend others, to learn to listen more so that one would learn more, to be careful with pranks and jokes as it might offend other people and that you might get hurt, or to be careful with whom you associate with as it will have an influence in your attitude (such as people who continually drink and fight), to not touch other people or other people’s property as it might offend their sensibilities and taboos such as not to laugh at animals since its spirit guardian might punish you and make you ill or even laugh during an ocassion of storm or lightning.

If for some reason children do not follow the rules being set by their elders, they are punished. Usually this involves a beating or whipping. Thin but hard rattan or bamboo sticks are a favorite whipping tool of the old people. On some rare ocassions, even an abaca whip can be utilized to inflict pain just to prove the point.

Today, lumad children are provided with free education, healthcare and are slowly being integrated into the mainstream of the modern society. Both the national offices for the indigenous peoples and the local government in Davao assist in the delivery of these multi-services to “cultural communities.” Ostensibly, the objective is to affect the eventual “assimilation” of tribal peoples into the modern society.

Assimilation has its pros and cons. But that discussion is for another time.

Meanwhile in the hinterlands of Davao City, Davao del Sur and North Cotabato, where the influence of modernization is less apparent, lumad children still learn, the hard way.

A lumad girl wearing an abaca (hemp) inspired dress. The abaca-woven dress is termed as “inabal” in Bagobo dialect. Note the girl’s colorful sash and the basket (lob-ban) that she carriesat her back.  See also the leg bands (tikos) worn by the girl.

Lumad children in their abaca-inspired garment pose for the camera.

Jeepneys in the City

Modified passenger jeeps such as these, came from a lineage of American military jeeps which were junked after the second world war in the Asia-Pacific. Davao was under Japanese occupation before Liberation in 1944. Here, the jeeps still ply San Pedro-Ilustre Streets.

A red AC Jeep.

Jeeps at Claveria street in an afternoon.

For many Dabawenyos, jeeps are still the popular mode of transport. In Davao City,  where most of the commerce thrive, you will find a lot of small jeeps and big jeeps. Dabawenyos utter the words,” lugar lang nong!”, whenever they wish to be disembarked at certain places. The City’s traffic policy definitely observe a “yellow-box-zone” where passengers are loaded or unloaded.  Public utility drivers in the City observe traffic discipline and courtesy to both passengers and pedestrians.

A red-yellow jeep.

Multi-cab jeep at Oyanguren street.

Yup, small jeeps all the way!

Jeepney from Calinan bearing Durian fruits.

Glimpses of the Davao International Airport

The road entrance going to the Davao International Airport at the Diversion Road, Davao City.

D.I.A.

A side perspective of the Airport.

Travel and Airline offices line up at the front.

Bluish hues cover the D.I.A. entrance walkway.

The brightly ventilated hall and some beautiful orchids.

Squeaky clean floors.

Bags, beads, souvenirs and other food items being sold at the airport’s cafeteria.

More at Kadayawan City

Kling,Kling,Kling, ice cream anybody?!!!

A man looks at a Matigsalug tribesman among a huge crowd that gathered during the festivities at San Pedro street.

An array of pineapples and a smile.

Rambutan fruits.

A Taho vendor at an afternoon in  Claveria street.

A man and his small daughter prepare to board a jeepney.

Kadayawan City

Festive mood at Roxas Street.

Cars and vehicles pass by outside a popular souvenir center in Davao.

Bags and other Muslim inspired clothing products.

Madayaw Dabaw!

Durian delivery from Calinan.

Durian, tastes like heaven, smells like hell. Well, that’s what they say. But not me.

“This one tastes like heaven”.