[Aswang] - a mythical creature in Philippine folklore. Often described as a shapeshifter - sometimes a vampire, sometimes a ghoul, sometimes a witch - that preys on humans, especially at night.
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" Manila is sinking, not just with the flood but blood ."
The Philippines, the Pearl of the Orient Seas.
A Southeast Asian country with 18 regions and 149 cities, filled with enchanting beauty-mountains that kiss the heavens, breathtaking landscapes, and skyscrapers piercing the shadows of the night.
But beneath the glass towers lie sprawling slums swallowed by darkness. In the forests, towering trees hides the armed rebels, their weapons already stained with blood. Along the coasts, picturesque fishing villages are relentlessly devoured by storms and rising seas.
Metro Manila, the capital region, is among the busiest commercial hubs in the world, brimming with steel and glass, wealth and enterprise. Its beauty reflects in the golden waters of Manila Bay, and from the ridges of the Sierra Madre, the city still shimmers like a jewel in the distance.
Yet a curse runs deep here-one not of nature, but something far worse. An invisible curse. One that makes you feel you are never truly alone.
Every month, countless people vanish around the country-mostly in Manila and across the Visayas Islands. Sometimes, they are found again... but no longer alive. Some are discovered torn apart, their torsos ripped open, their insides spilling out. Others are found missing their entire body parts.
The most infamous case was that of a 9-year-old boy from Makati City, John Rey Peligrino. On Christmas Eve, 2012, he left his house to go caroling and after that, he never returned.
His parents reported him missing, and the police searched for days until a small suitcase was discovered floating along the Pasig River. Children found it beneath Guadalupe Bridge-and what they saw scarred them for life.
Inside was the boy's severed head. His spinal cord still attached. Folded into a suitcase too small to contain it.
In 2015, another victim: a 25-year-old woman from Cebu City. She and her American fiancé had been missing for two months before her decomposing body was discovered beneath the Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway. Her abdomen had been torn wide open. Dumped on a shoreline in Barangay Pasil, her corpse crawled with maggots. DNA confirmed her identity.
Police reports pointed this to an urban legend-a hidden cannibal community said to lurk across the country. That same year, a private restaurant in Makati was shut down after it was caught serving human meat. Its clients allegedly included businessmen, politicians, even celebrities. The case broke open when a customer found a strip of human skin-tattoo still intact-floating in their tinola soup.
Around the same time, a meat processing factory in Valenzuela City was raided by police and discovered to be distributing human flesh.
Rumors spread quickly. Some believed this was not human at all, but something older-viscera-sucking creatures spoken of in folklore. Government statements referred to it as a "cannibalism epidemic."
Even history whispers of them. During the Cold War, one of the bloodiest massacres in Philippine history unfolded in the Sierra Madre. With the CIA from the USA backing, government troops launched an operation against the communist rebels. According to certain records, over 2,500 rebels died. But what terrified historians was the aftermath: bodies left skinless, hollowed out, emptied of their organs. Survivors whispered that the soldiers were no ordinary men, but cultists from the Panay Island.
More recently, a Filipino cult leader was deported from the United States after being charged with human meat trafficking. Pastor William Apollo, founder of the Messengers of Jesus Church in Cebu City, one of the biggest churches in the Philippines. FBI records show that a witness uncovered a human sacrifice ritual they called 'The Last Supper'. Over 500 bodies were found buried in their compound in California. Several members remain at large.
Crimes tied to Filipinos began surfacing worldwide:
- "Overseas Filipino worker arrested for chopping a pregnant woman in Hong Kong."
- "Cannibal Filipino nurse arrested in Saudi Arabia."
- "Filipino family butchered their neighbor in Adachi City, Japan."
- "Filipino doctor caught eating an unborn baby in a Los Angeles abortion clinic."
Soon after, Japan and Saudi Arabia issued travel bans against the Philippines due to the spate of murders linked to Filipinos. In the U.S., anti-Filipino rallies erupted in New York City, demanding the mass deportation of Filipino communities.
Strange, isn't it? That so many of these crimes are connected to Filipinos-and always the same theme: brutal murder and cannibalism. This is no longer normal.
Whether you're alone or in a crowded place, you are no longer safe. They are there. Always watching, waiting, and hunting.
Sometimes, when I walk through Quiapo, I feel their presence. Some of them avoid the crowd, slipping through the alleys like shadows. Others blend among us, smiling, laughing, pretending to be human. But they share the same aura, an uncanny presence you cannot ignore.
I remember the stories my grandmother told me about the Aswang.
These creatures, like vampires, feast on raw flesh-especially human flesh. They crave unborn children and human livers. Their long tongues pierce through walls and windows, sucking out entrails. Their claws are sharpened for tearing.
Grandmother said there are many kinds. Some take the form of birds. Others of dogs. Some split their bodies in half and fly through the night sky. Some can pass their curse onto humans-through blood, through curses, or by forcing them to swallow the "black chick" said to crawl from their throats.
I did my own research. Accounts suggest these creatures originate from the Visayas: Siquijor, Panay, and beyond. Over 21 different kinds are said to be exist. Some feast on rotting corpses. Others devour even their own kind.
One article I found described a documented case: a victim discovered torn open, body emptied of organs. The details were identical to the so-called "cannibalism murders" today.
Even my Culture Teacher, Sir Eli Caluag once said: some tribal groups practiced ritual killings-human sacrifice to appease gods or spirits.
According to some recent PNP reports, more than ten syndicates are now involved in human meat trafficking across the country. No one knows exactly who their clients are, but most shipments are traced back to the Visayas, smuggled across to Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and even the United States.
And the question lingers: are these truly human crimes? Or is this something older? Something inhuman?
When you look at the pattern, it's all the same. And out of all the possible crimes-why always cannibalism?
Could it be that we are not alone?
That something else lives among us-something not human?
Perhaps this has been with us since ancient times.
And maybe, just maybe, they are learning how to adapt... to the modern world.
And what if?
There is something more