Local folklore

GOING back to Philippines, esp. to the province, is always an immersion into the mystique. Having been trained in the sciences where truth is always based on empirical evidence, I cannot help but be amazed at the stories and tales that could have only come out of a Harry Potter film.

Filling the airwaves in Bacolod City after I arrived home to attend my sister’s wedding last month was this story of a manananggal. These horrid beings are capable of cutting their bodies in half, leaving their lower limbs in the thick forest while the other, winged half scours the villages for babies or young children to eat.

News have it that this woman used to work as a domestic in Saudi Arabia where she obtained this curse from her dying master. None of the latter’s descendants wanted to accept it, and with the promise of wealth, the curse was offered to her. Seeing this as a rare opportunity to uplift her family’s coffers, she accepted and promptly returned to Iloilo City.

However, upon her return, the curse became manifest and her first order of business was to boil her two sons one at a time and have them for dinner. The husband, who was later interviewed on radio, said that he caught her during her second cook fest and shot her with a revolver, which couldn’t fire. He then tried to hack her with a bolo but she momentarily escaped.

The husband and the other villagers eventually caught up with her and put her behind bars. However, the following morning, she had disappeared and in her place was a young female child, whom the police had to release. The last thing that I heard before returning to Japan was that she has relocated to a small, impoverished town called Hinigaran in southern Negros Occidental. Mothers there are currently living in fear as her specter fills the dark nights, despite the town mayor issuing statements on radio and in the local press that no such creature stalks their town.

Radio reports say that there was even one instance when she barged into a home despite the presence of four adults. She was after a seven-month-old baby lying in bed. This foolhardy attempt for a quick meal rapidly failed as the adults were jostled in their sleep and started chasing her. However, her gift of flight kept her from their noose.

Old wives say that the only way to kill her is to prevent her from reuniting with her other half by finding it and pouring salt on the open wound. Attempts to do this have not been successful and the search continues, as of this writing.

The next story that I heard was about my sister’s officemate. Joy (not her real name) was out one day painting their house, as she chatted noisily with a couple of friends. The following day, she noticed a swelling on her left cheek, which caused considerable pain.

Thinking that it was a dental problem, she decided to visit her dentist, who found nothing wrong with her teeth or gums. However, to ease the pain, the dentist prescribed antibiotics that she took to no avail. She had to be absent from work because of the inflammation, which had already begun to spread to her neck.

Following a friend’s advice, she decided to visit a local witch doctor, called surhano in the local dialect. At the latter’s place, Joy was made to macerate a few pieces of ginger, which the surhano held and applied on her swollen cheek. A few minutes later, three pieces of broken glass, a pebble and a tree bark mysteriously appeared from her face.

The surhano believed that she had disturbed the bathing area of the dwarves that live near their home and that her noise irritated them. As a consequence, they threw these fragments at her, which lodged on her left cheek. Now that they have been removed, the surhano advised her to burn them at home. Then and only then will the pain disappear and the swelling subside.

Joy immediately did as she was told, and as if by magic, the pain immediately ceased. The swelling was still visible but the discomfort was totally gone. She was back in the office the following day, and soon after, the swelling completely subsided and her cheek returned to its normal shape. That she had indeed disturbed the peace of the dark elementals was revealed in a dream the night after her swift, miraculous recovery.

I can tell you a few more tales like these but space limitations prevent me. In brief, there’s this story about a surhano living close to our home who can diagnose an illness by making a raw egg covered with oil stand on the side of a rounded jar. Physics laws prove this is impossible but this has been done, as many can attest.
My sister herself has also seen a three-foot dwarf who peeked at her as she was doing something in our kitchen. This being was in bright red garments and moved with surprising agility despite his seemingly old age.

Outlandish these tales may be, especially when told to someone living in Japan, but they are hot coffee shop topics in the provinces. Filipinos never seem to run out of tales of elves, dwarves, white ladies, and the like. It is amusing to see this cornucopia of myths, esoteric religious beliefs and computer age modernity weave into the Filipino psyche. It is amazing how this juxtaposition of sorts shape local folklore.

Whether these are true or not is up to the reader to decide. Suffice it to say that to those who have experienced it themselves, these are as real as the palm of their hands. However, to the skeptics, there is no harm in keeping an open mind.

Who knows, that flashing white light that you see at the periphery of your eye may be the white lady who could offer you some of life’s (or even death’s) answers. *

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You may email the author at butch@philippinestoday.net