Monsters, demons, and other ethereal beings of ancient Philippines.

The world of both Ranao and Mindayen are filled with evenly dark and light ethereal creatures that will serve as friends or foes of our heroines.

Character like “Hiraya” which is a young erring “Ada” (Elf Enchantress), “Daluyong” a talkative tree demon (Tikbalang) and “Alik-ba” a wise craking wind spirit are creatures from the enchanted realm.

Even Princess Ranao and Mindayen themselves are kataws or native mermaids.

In ancient times, people believed that dark, mysterious, night living creatures exist. They were thought to cause bad harvest, misfortunes, sickness and death.

So great care was taken not to displease them.

Sadly, there are still those who believe in them, especially from the countryside, and remote areas where the march of progress is a bit slow.

However in these times of computer age, such creatures were fast being forgotten.
Maximo B. Ramos; a scholar has classified these night dark beings into twelve groups: Demons, Dragons, dwarves, elves, ghouls, giants, mercreatures, ogres, vampires, werebeasts, viscera suckers and hexers.

The demons are tall, dark men or men-like creatures.
Some were large bodied and smokes giant cigars (Kapres) some had the head of horses (Tikbalang) others could perform self-segmentations.(Pugot)
These demons can take on various shapes such as carabaos, horses, pigs or even a ball of fire or they can disappear at will. A person who is frightened by these creatures goes insane.
These creatures live in huge trees with thick, oval leaves like the Calumpang tree or Balete tree.

Dragons are said to have combined images of other creatures like snakes, fishes, crocodiles and bird-like. The legends told stories about giant serpents (Marcupo), island size monster birds (Bawa) and the monstrous Baconawa of the sea.

Dwarf and dwarf-like creatures are small and their features are all out of proportions. They were said to have potent powers and at sunset, they roam the countryside.
Because they are invisible, people were extra careful not to step on or brush off any of these supposed beings as not to rile them. Dwarves like the “Nuno sa Punso” are said to release a murderous curse at their oppressors.

Elves are handsome and beautiful beings said to have albino-like characteristics. Some of these creatures turn ugly after they married a hapless victim.
Elves are said to live in trees and they forbid the climbing and cutting of their tree home.
They are said to retaliate by releasing powerful hexes at the trespassers.
Some elves are said to communicate to people by whistles and making prank jokes and stealing food.

Ghouls (Aswang) are animal-like with curved nails that they use to dig the grave. They are also notorious snatchers of living people especially children and they also victimize old ailing people.
Because of what they do, ghouls are terribly smelly. And fire, garlic, loud talking, sharp bamboo poles and copper knives scare them away.

Giants in Philippine folklore seldom hurt people. They were even legends about them helping farmers and fishermen. They are said to live in crude houses, and were said to be very stupid.

Ogres are man-eating giants said to live in crude houses. These creatures are extremely ugly and can change unto beasts.

Mandurugo are Philippine vampires who seduce a victim and gives him a kiss. This “kiss” is actually a blood sucking were the fiend uses her pointed tongue to bore hole inside the victim’s mouth where she can suck blood.

The self-segmenting viscera suckers (Mananangal) are said to be the flying variety of the land ghoul (Aswang). They eat the unborn fetus, the internal organs and the phlegm of tuberculosis sufferers.
These looked like ordinary women by day, but at night, they sprout giant bat wings and separate their lower half, to fly out in search of victims.

Hexers are like Voodoo Witches. They have small wax or straw dolls of their victims that they prick needle with.
Another type of hexer, called the Mamalarang (Mambabarang) uses hard-shelled insects to enter the body of the victim with excoriating pain.

The “Kataw” are Philippine mermaids said to abduct young boys where they can play with in their undersea domain. They will give their victim trick questions and if they heard the wrong answer, they will drown their said victim. If they heard the right answer, they will keep him alive.

A Christian's reply

A funny thing happened after I published the last article.
A Christian wrote to Mr. Dave De Angelo about my views regarding Jesus Christ and Christianity. Here is what he wrote:

Cornel Bongco wrote:> Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2006 22:28:09 -0800 (PST)> From: Cornel Bongco > Subject: Re:Project Redondo Komix> To: Dave D'Angelo > >

Dear Dave,> >

I tried to view the Project Redondo Komix. I liked> the graphics but the message> is something else because of its Jesus/Christianity> trash talk.

The proponents> may be right and I agree with them that some> Christians are not representing> Christianity well because of the havoc some> missionaries have done to our> culture. But to trash talk Jesus may speak of> ignorance.

Ignorance about who> Jesus is, the gospels, about other Christians who> are living a Christ like> life, restoring the destruction that foreign> missionaries did to our culture by> what we call cultural restoration and redemption.>

And ignorance or bigotry does> not have a place in sustainable development.

The> experience of the writers> about the whole "religion bit" may be really bad but>

I ask them to see and> experience other Christian groups because there are> some Christians that will> make them feel the real deal.

Jesus may not be real> to them because those who> are supposed to represent Him may not be> representing Him as well as He should> be represented.

If He really thinks Jesus and the> gospels are a lie, I hope> they would read it with the challenge of proving the> gospels wrong.

I did and> found myself being amazed at the Bible because the> more I tried to read it and> compare it with archeological findings the more it> proves itself true. >

I hope I did not sound like a Bible thumping> preacher. I'm just in love with> the carpenter "Jesus" whose nailmarks have set me> free from a life of despair> and hopelessness. > > >


Now, THIS is my reply:

Dear Mr. Cornel Bongco,



I was wondering why you wrote Mr. De Angelo on behalf on MY OWN OPINIONS regarding Christianity. In the first place Mr. De Angelo has nothing to do with my personal point of views about Christianity.

If you got something to tell me, tell it infront of my face like a real man!

Well mas mabuti suguro kung tayong dalawa ang mag-uusap. What I have just said hindi ko babawiin tol alam mo bakit? Because the truth hurts. Now who is ignorant about this Jesus H. Christ ha? Me? Oh come on, if you think it is ignorance that I know for sure that this Jesus thing is a Roman ploy, what am I being ignorant about? If you call me an ignorant because I know Christians uses this so-called “messiah” to conquer and enslave a lot of people, destroy other cultural traditions then by the gods I am guilty and proud of it.

You see, your religion, your Christ and your doctrines were just handed down by the conquering Spaniards. It is not yours in the first place. Your ancestors have been worshipping our own gods and goddesses long before the Spaniards use the cross and the guns to oppress us. If you are proud of it, well I’m not.

Now you are blabbering about the Judeo-Christian Bible? Is this Bible for real? Hmmmm..Real in what sense? Do you say it is real because it says that there was once a time that Israel exists? If you read Spiderman, well it says that there is New York, The Bronx and Manhattan. Those places are also existing in real life, but is there a web slinging crime fighter today dangling in the sky scrappers of New York City? Where the heck he was last September 11, 2001? It’s just like your so-called miracle worker. Israel exists, but according to Matthew 27:52 a lot of corpse (or zombie if you want to call them) rose up in the time that your Jesus died in the cross. Now can you give me a historical collaboration of that event please….WHAT! No collaboration?

ANO YAN COMICS?!

Remember that we are talking about Roman times. Can you give me any historian who wrote during the time or within a century after that time like Philo Jadaeus, Plutarch, Lucian, Pausanias, Seneca and others that have a good full report of walking dead people in Judea? (Ala George Romero).

I have read your gospel. Now let’s take a good look at it if you don’t mind.

Your Jesus told his disciples that who ever say fool is endanger in hell fire. That can be seen on Matthew 5:22. Now, if you continue to read all the gospel narratives, there are a lot of times Jesus called other people a fool (Example: Luke 11:37.) Now we know for sure where your messiah is going diba?
"And the Lord said unto the servant, Go out unto the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled" (Luke14:23). In this parable the lord, who represents God, compelled people to enter his house. Would God compel people to enter heaven? The just and peaceful Jesus is sanctioning compulsion?
"Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them" (Luke 11:47). Jesus is condemning people for having ancestors who killed prophets, yet, he had such ancestral killers as David and Solomon.
"Jesus said, ... `Thou shalt not steal... (Matt. 19:18) versus "Go ye into the village over against you; in the which at your entering ye shall find a colt tied, whereon yet never man sat: loose him, and bring him hither. And if any man ask you, why do ye loose him? thus shall ye say unto him, Because the Lord hath need of him. And they that were sent went their way, and found even as he had said unto them. And as they were loosing the colt, the owners thereof said unto them, Why loose ye the colt?" (Luke 19:30-33). Are we to believe this isn't theft? Imagine seeing a stranger driving your car away while claiming the lord needed it.
" And Jesus said, 'Go to the city to such a man, and say unto him, The Master saith, My time is at hand; I will keep the passover at thy house with my disciples"(Matt. 26:18). Jesus should have displayed better manners. You don't invite yourself into someone's home. First you receive an invitation.
" If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true" (John 5:31) versus "Though I bear witness of myself, yet my record is true" (John 8:14).
And who will forget the story of the poor fig tree. Now that strengthens my contempt to this false messiah. Just imagine cursing a poor, defenseless fig tree because it’s not fruit season. Now why does instead of cursing the tree why not heal it so it can bare fruit regardless of season? Why will you use a defenseless tree as an example of your tyranny and impatience?

Is this the Jesus you want me to worship? As I always say, there are better gods and goddesses out there.

Yes that Bible is really amazing. Here is an example of a book that tells the story of a barbaric tyrannical bully you worship as God. Now this bully created evil and punishes people on his own mistakes at the first place. To appease his anger, he needs a lot of blood. YEP! You read it right. BLOOD! His priests become butchers and his temple a slaughterhouse. You can even use your own children as Burnt offerings. So it’s just obvious that the next offering is his own son. Talk about fatherly love.
Sa iyo na lang yan. I’m not interested with your horror story.

And hey before I forgot, here’s a good passage from your good book:
Ezekiel 23:20 There she lusted after her lovers, whose GENITALS were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses.
With these kinda pornography, I better read the I Ching instead.

So that’s all about your Bible for now, we can talk more about it in the future. For the meantime let’s talk about your so-called conversion with Jesus H. Christ. Or maybe your’re just talking about subjective experience. Ahhhh…ganoon nga lang pala. I really met a lot of dopes who claim to know Jesus and was change for the better. Hmmm…the likes of good ol’ Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker sometimes come to my mind, diba? Do you remember those guys ha? Well…do you think ol’ Jimmy was reciting his daily prayers when he met Debra Murphy…inside his car? And you call me ignorant.

There is a saying, Ignorance is their best weapon. So in where I stand, I know I’m well armed. When your Bible came into my hands, I would like to thank Siring for giving me the light of understanding the foreign venomous book. I would also like to thank Apo Laki for arming me with knowledge against the foreign tyrant you claimed to be god.

Good bye and thanks for visiting the “Ranao and Mindayen Blog”.

All I can say for you is, may Bathala forgive you and His curse doesn’t fall down on you and your next generation.

Prejudice against native beliefs

I once opened the T.V looking for something interesting and inspiring in this medium.
Well, I stumbled on a filler feature called Japan Video Topics. This filler feature is quite inspiring as you could see how the Japanese people loved and adored their culture. You could just stop and think that someday, Filipinos can be the same. I remembered also seeing a National Geographic article about Hawaiians preserving their culture even though they were under the wings of Uncle Sam.
As my search for something inspiring continues, I stumbled onto two local Filipino fantasy series shows titled “Eteria” and “Sugo”.

There’s nothing “Filipino” in these shows. “Eteria” looks like a Lord of the Rings, Ragnarok, and Clash of the Titans wannabe. The names of the characters, the costumes, even the title is NOT Filipino. On the other hand, “Sugo” had some-Filipino stylized characters. But most often, these characters are portrayed as scheming evil doers. And the main hero characters are inclined to be Chinese-like, evident on the T.V. Show’s logo. (The Yin and Yang)
Aside from these, I remembered seeing the movie “Lapu-Lapu”. (Starring Lito Lapid)

I don’t care much about the shows inaccuracy, although the Chinese marauders do not looked anything like Chinese. (Perhaps if the show depicted them accurately, it will send uproar from the Chinese community and business people.)

What bothers me is that Lapu-Lapu was killed in the end by Humabon’s people ala “Braveheart.”
There are no accounts that said Lapu-Lapu was killed right after the battle of Mactan.
(Although some may say, there are no accounts that Lapu-Lapu wasn’t killed after the Mactan battle either.)

His death in that movie seems to imply that Christianity carried by the invaders, slowly make its way through the heart of the natives. Then here comes this heathen ruler, Lapu-Lapu with his sword and cut Christianity off its tracks.
For punishment, God uses His divine powers and killed this pagan king by making his rivals kill him!
Lapu-Lapu is a noble warrior, a chief to all his people. He is also the first Filipino to spit God in the face by vanquishing the barbarian Spaniards, and kicking their butts off our sacred shores!

But finally, Christians and all their wide influences and their guns, goons and gold prevailed…This lead to the burning of most of the Philippines’ indigenous beliefs and cultural religion.

Now, the old gods and mythological icons like the Bulul and Likha, were replaced by the images of foreign saints’ or of a so-called foreign bible that was not even written by Filipinos. These foreign faith icons do not even have a trickle of native blood to begin with.

Now, Filipinos believe in this wonder maker named Jesus H. Christ who wallowed in the death of persecuted heretics who were killed by Christians because they never believed in him and his so-called Father God!

This Jesus Christ is nothing more but a fable, an instrument handed down by the “Prayles” to instill terror and fear among the earlier natives so the conquered people will be kept in line.

In his book, Exploring the Powers of your Inner Mind, local psychic Jaime T. Licauco
Had this to say about the Prejudice against Native beliefs:


“I have often wondered how the strong prejudice of many modern-day Filipinos against native or indigenous beliefs and practices originated. Only recently, I found the answer from an old manuscript of a famous American anthropologist, the late H. Otley Bayer, who married a native Ifugao maiden. His grand daughter, Julie Bayer Bagatsing, showed me Mr. Bayer’s unpublished manuscript written in 1921, entitled The Philippines Before Magellan. Julie told me that Celso El. Carunungan was editing the book before he too, passed away.
The following passage in that manuscript provides an insight into the origins of this religious prejudice.

“Spanish Colonization both in the Americas and the Philippines was characterized by one feature very painful for the historian. The seal for the Christian faith and corresponding hatred for all other forms of beliefs, led them to regard the native writings and art as the works of the devil, and their destruction as a pious act. In Mexico and Peru, many old records were preserved in more or less modified form in the writings of native Christians and Spanish half-castes. In the Philippines, the destruction was more thorough, and only a few, isolated documents and fragments of others have survived.
It cannot be said that such writings did not exist, since the Spaniards themselves tell us that the early Filipinos were even more literate than the Mexicans. They used syllabaries of Indian origin, and one Spanish Priest in Central Luzon boasted of having destroyed large numbers of scrolls written in the native character.”

Obviously, this prejudice of native beliefs and practices have survived throughout the ages and now extends beyond religion. What is propagated by our modern purveyors of culture often the borrowed culture from the west masquerading as Filipino culture. Has anyone ever heard of the Cultural Center of the Philippines sponsor a formal symposium on the native beliefs in anting-anting, oracion or duwendes?
Has there been a program on the native gods of the Filipinos or such native practices as bare handed psychic surgery and other natural healing practices? No, for these are not considered as culture. But there are many shows featuring western music, plays, ballet and other similar foreign cultural forms in that venue.
Filipino writings on native beliefs and practices such as beliefs in the supernatural, in the preter-natural creatures, and in the paranormal which are essential ingredients of Philippine culture, are often not considered parts of Philippine literature. They are not regarded as cultural writings but as curiosities. But when one writes in a manner and style of western writers, his works were at once labeled as “literature”.
The prejudice against esoteric, orthodox culture parallels the prejudice against native beliefs. And while hundreds of western-inspired literary and cultural works are being published every year in the Philippines, the very valuable works of anthropologist H. Otley Beyer on native lore and beliefs are gathering dust and are slowly being destroyed by time in the attic of the Bayer family’s home, waiting for some enlightened philanthropist or government agency to fund their publication. Sadly, with the strong prejudice of the ruling class against our indigenous culture, these writings may never see the light of day.”

Now I understand why secluded ancient societies from the past called foreign outsiders “Barbarians.” Now I understand that these foreign invaders are here to conquer not only physically, but also the ever lasting identity of a people and their culture.
Perhaps, If the Filipinos were not so hospitable, perhaps we’ve grown and nurtured our identity as a people just like Japan and the Hawaiians.
Perhaps, were not trapped watching “foreignized” Filipino shows like “Eteria” and “Sugo”…

Ancient Alphabets of the Islanders.

The system of writing used by the islanders of Ranao and Mindayen’s story, were based to that of the ancient writing system of the early Filipinos.

Before the introduction of the Roman Alphabet, the ancient Filipinos had their own system of writing called “Baybayin” and later was known as the “Alibata” (said to be coined by some U.P. professor.)

The Baybayin is a form of syllabary with three vowels sounds (a, e-I, o-u) and approximately fourteen consonants.

Samples of this syllabary were recorded by Spanish missionaries and utilized in the country’s first printed book Doctrina Christiana.

It is said that everybody, both men and women knew how to read and write using this script.

The ancient Tagalogs wrote on a piece of bark or bamboo, and the symbols were etched using a sharp stick or stylus.

A dash or dot sited above the consonant signifies the “e” or “i” sound; the same marking below signify the “o” or “u” sound.

There is no record of how expansively the Baybayin was used.

The only archeological substantiation of its existence is from an inscribed pot found in Calatagan, Batangas.

Up to now, the Mangyangs and Tagbanua tribes have preserved a inscription system similar to that of the Baybayin.

They still use it for writing short poems, songs, recording debts and assorted personal messages.