I hear once in a while from fellow Filipinos about legends and accounts from their childhood . This one was an unusual series of short stories from fellow Philippine expat, Sam Torre who resides in Michigan, in the U.S. As with other stories from that colorful part of the world where I was born and raised, a lot of these first-person accounts are believed to be part of the landscape of the town.
As Filipinos, we tend to accept what we see and hear, be it cryptids such as Bat-batan Utan (Bigfoot), Tiyanak, Aswang, or our version of the mothman which I recently shared in a Coast-to-Coast article on my official Facebook page. My father was haunted for several months by a mothman-like creature who responded with derision upon viewing a crucifix. It’s usually tossed up as creatures from the underworld, encountered when we somehow cause havoc or create a disturbance in the landscape of serenity or when a violation of the human spirit is committed.
Filipinos also believe in nature spirits like the American Indians do. They protect nature and are there as stewards to teach us how to relate to the rest of the earth and be protectors of nature and wildlife in turn. The more malevolent ones are seen as evil, portentious and can bring about a curse which must be prayed on in order to be removed from the person’s life. In some cases, a witch doctor, a “manananggal” is sought to alleviate the curse.
Sam’s story comes from the province of Ilocos, in the northern area of Luzon. He lived as a child in a small town, nestled in an abundance of wildlife, great “organic” food and the community that nurtured him were close. His family nurtured his talents and made him the successful man he is today. It is in this setting that Sam as a child, like any other child, played, roamed and learned. Sam’s house happened to be near the school yard and was actually just several yards from the school building. As such, people who were somehow connected to the school took short cuts through their back yard on the way to the school.
One day Sam’s father decided their backyard had become busy with people taking a short cut. To prevent access to their yard, he had workmen come and build a wall made from hollow blocks. Shortly, the wall was completed. However, the next morning, to Sam’s father’s consternation, the cement blocks were taken down. They were scattered on the ground as if vandalized.
Sam’s father had the wall rebuilt, convinced it was a vandal or some rude community member who got used to the short cut through their private yard. He had just watched it completed, when lo and behold, the next day, he found the wall taken down again. For the third time, the workmen, frustrated and upset, were summoned and the wall rebuilt.
However, for the third time it was again taken down. The family consulted a woman who could communicate with spirits to determine if she could tell what was taking the wall down. She concluded after some meditation and a visit to the area that the site had something buried in the soil. Somehow, the wall was blocking the mouth of a buried jar that was being guarded by spirits. Thus, they had to ask the spirits guarding the jar to please move so that the wall could be built and left undisturbed.
The family cooked a white chicken – and with a bottle of Ginebra San Miguel (A local beer), the family made the offering before sundown. The workmen built the wall and left for the evening.
The spirits never disrupted the wall ever again. It was there as constructed without a single block out of place.
As with any other old country, the small villages and large towns of the Philippines are host to a myriad of creature sightings, phantoms, mythical beings and other sinisteria. This story in particular is based on the belief that we sometimes are alerted by outside influences to something precious that was buried as elves do when there is a “pot of gold.”
Next I will share Sam’s second story which relates to how violence taints the soil and forever etches it with apparitions and souls of the victims of war.
I hope you enjoyed this story! For those of you that are new subscribers, please watch for any offers of an upcoming book with co-author and experiencer, Tom Conwell. Tom is a renowned UFOlogist and Pattern Researcher.
The Night Visitants: A Ufologist, An Experiencer and the Undefinable is due for release this spring on Amazon! I am happy to announce we are halfway through the writing of this dual-genre book about Tom and his most interesting and terrifying case of a lifetime experiencer, whom we will call “Shayleen”.
