Panay Island Aswang Stories

The Aswang is a vampire-like mythical creature in Philippine folklore and is arguably the most popular mythical creature in the country. It has been a subject of a wide variety of myths & stories across the Philippine Islands, popular especially in the Visayas, notably in Panay Island.
They can take the form of an animal, such as a wild black boar or a feral dog and feeds on human flesh. The powers of an aswang is said to be inherited, and an old aswang can only die after passing on the "curse" in the form of a stone of some kind.

My hometown is Iloilo City, which is at the Southern part of Panay Island and growing up there as a child, it is quite common to hear aswang stories. The popular stories being passed around are those of Teniente Gimo & Maria Labo.




Maria Labo

Maria Labo is a female Aswang notable for having a huge scar on her face. Like all aswang, she feeds
on human flesh & is said to still roam around in the rural areas of Visayas or maybe in Mindanao.

Maria Labo was not always an Aswang. According to her origins: she acquired her Aswang powers from an old aswang in some way, and after going home, her craving for flesh began to kick in. When her husband returned home from work, he asks his wife where their children are and a deranged Maria points at the stove where a boiling pot is, indicating that she cooked their kids. Enraged, the husband strikes ("labô", in the Hiligaynon dialect) Maria with a binangon (a machete) which is how she got her iconic scar, as well as how she earned the monicker "Maria Labo". She escapes from her hometown and is said to have fled somewhere in the Visayas.
She either takes the form of a beautiful young woman or an old lady.

Teniente Gimo
Teniente Gimo is said to be the Teniente del Barrio (modern equivalent is Baranggay Captain; Teniente, spanish for lieutenant) of a town of Aswangs somewhere in a rural area in the province of Iloilo, in some variations of the story it is said to be a town in Dueñas or maybe in Capiz.

There are a lot of versions of the story but they all centre around a common plot. The version I'll be sharing is the one I've heard personally from a friend.

The Story

There are two friends, let's refer to them as Maria & Clara. Maria invites Clara to attend their town fiesta somewhere in rural Iloilo and suggests she sleeps over for a night, to which Clara excitedly agrees to.

Upon arriving to their town, Clara is welcomed warmly by the townsfolk as it is customary for Filipinos. Maria's house was the standard Nipa hut, which is a common house structure in Filipino rural areas, albeit their's was bigger. She was invited to eat inside and upon entering her friend's house, she was surprised to see that only little food was prepared on the feast table, quite unusual for a fiesta celebration. Teniente Gimo, who is Maria's father, answers that the big feast will be later that night-- which somehow unnerved her.

At nighttime, a big feast was indeed prepared but Clara only ate a little as there was an unusual flavour with the meat prepared. After dinner, Clara and Maria retreat to the latter's room where they chatted until both felt sleepy. Clara assists her friend prepare the sleeping mats and afterwards both drifted to sleep.

The only source of ventilation in the room is the window, and it was becoming quite hot for Clara that she couldn't sleep very well. She stood up to switch sleeping positions with her friend, and overhears a frightening conversation. Outside, Teniente Gimo instructs the butcher to take the girl who is far from the window. Clara realises that the lieutenant intended her to be the main course and she hurriedly switches sleeping positions with Maria, who was apparently in deep sleep. The butcher sneaks in the room and gags Maria, then drags her out to be beaten and afterwards chopped to be cooked for the "real big feast".

Meanwhile, after making sure that it was safe to go out, Clara frantically makes her way out of her friend's house and heads to the main road-- not long after she catches a horrifying glimpse of her chopped-up friend being loaded in a pot. Teniente Gimo realises that the cooked meat was his dead daughter's. Angered, he forms a mob to go after Clara. The mob is armed with machetes and torches and proceeds to hunt down their lone prey. Clara was beginning to get tired and her pace was getting slower. She rests for awhile and spots the approaching mob pursuing her from far away, hinted by the faint light of the torches. She is aware she can never outrun them so she decided to climb a big tree. Although not an experienced climber, she still managed to scale the tree to escape the aswang mob. She was never discovered, and the mob returns to their town with a fruitless search.

Early morning, Clara descends from the tree and makes her way to the main road where she hitches a ride back to the City, and spread word about the tale of Teniente Gimo.

Teniente Gimo and his clan of aswangs on the other hand went into hiding, or settled in another area to prey on new victims.

Variations:

• In some versions of the story, there is another friend that the aswang daughter invites to their town apart from the main protagonist.
• Another version of the switching scene is when the girls switch accessories instead of switching sleeping positions, but ultimately, it is still the lieutenant's daughter who gets cooked.
• The extra friend is either:

1. Left behind because the protagonist cannot wake her up for being a deep sleeper, having an unknown fate at the end (but is most likely killed and eaten)
2. Escapes with the main protagonist to live and tell the tale of their horrifying experience

These stories were frightening back in my childhood, but it has also fascinated and intrigued me that it made me take an interest in local horror stories growing up. What about in your town, any horror stories you'd like to share? :)

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