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by Christian George Acevedo
Aswang is an umbrella term for different shape-shifting, flesh eating evil creatures in Filipino folklore. Of all the provinces in the Philippines, the aswang stigma has terribly lashed nowhere else but the Province of Capiz. So much so that Capiz has earned the notorious label as the “aswang capital.” But is there really an aswang in Capiz?
The aswang phenomenon had its origins during the early Spanish colonial period. In the pre-colonial society, there is this personality called the babaylan. They are usually female or transvestite mystical healers whose spiritual connectedness was a source of political and social power. Babaylan women serve as intermediaries between spiritual and material worlds in their communities. Hence, the babaylan’s role in the barangay equalled, if not surpassed that of the datu’s.
The Spanish priests feared that the influential role of the babaylan would hinder them from converting the natives into Christianity. When the colonizers arrived, they observed how powerful the babaylan was. So they campaigned to slander and malign these native priestesses and shamans, labelling them as witches. The Spaniards instilled fear among the locals. The witchlore of the blood sucking, flying half-bodied creature emerged in the early Christianized regions of the Philippines, like Capiz and Panay island. In fact, in the early 17th century dictionary of Alonso de Mentrida, the word aswang was already recorded, which was translated to the Spanish hechizero or witch.
Fast forward, during the American period, the same narrative could be said on how the aswang phenomenon was used to colonize the Philippines. The United States believed that it is the White Man’s duty to civilize their Little Brown Brother, slang term used to refer to Filipinos, who were depicted in propaganda materials as dirty, brutal, or uneducated. Now, the narrative of the aswang surfaced in the early years of American regime and served to further exoticize the Philippines and the Filipino. In 1900, US newspapers syndicated a story about the beautiful maiden in the province of Capiz, who turned out to be an aswang. This was the first wide-spread international coverage of Capiz as home to a flesh-eating creature. However, the story could be merely passed on a fictitious tale, but for the eyes of believing Americans, Capiz was an aswang haven.
Decades later, the aswang story was used once more, this time as a Cold War Propaganda against the Communist insurgents. In the 1950s, the US CIA stepped in to help the government fight Huk rebels in Luzon.
In his memoir, General Edward Lansdale recounted how they would kidnap one Huk, puncture his neck with two holes, hang his body by the heels, drain his blood, and dump the corpse on a trail that other Huks would pass by. The superstitious Huks fearing of the existence of an aswang would hurry to a different hill.
In 1975, Capiz suddenly became the center of the medical world not because an aswang was caught alive in the flesh, but because of a threatening medical condition that makes a victim seemed possessed by the devil. After a series of studies and experiments Doctors Lillian Villaruz-Lee and George Viterbo discovered the severe and progressive movement disorder called XDP, a form of Parkinsons with dystonic features. A separate study conducted by the Roxas Memorial Provincial Hospital in 1978 links this disorder to abnormality. The disease was named Dystonia – a neurological movement disorder where a patient manifests uncontrollable tremors or shaking of the limbs, tongue tremor, excessive salivation and difficulty in speaking due to the muscle contraction in all parts of the body.
When a person has a fit, he salivates and spins like a top, extends his tongue, much like being possessed by demons. In those days, when the disorder was not yet recognized, the patients, out of embarrassment, would usually hide from their neighbours, especially during daytime. Believing that their condition was a curse from God, they would rarely go out, sometimes only at night, when no one could see them. With poor visibility at night coupled with the fear of the unknown, their neighbors oftentimes confuse them, especially when they were suffering their spell, as malevolent creatures. Hence, the story of the aswang came to be.
But it isn’t really how it should be. As what we in Capiz would always tell, “Wala Aswang sa Capiz.”
References and recommended reading:
Aswang and Other Kinds of Witches: A Comparative Analysisby Kathleen Nadeau, 2011. (via JSTOR)
Pisting Yawa: The Devil who was once a Bisayan Deity byChristian Jeo N. Talaguit, 2021.
PSYWAR in the Philippines | ASWANG of the CIA by JordanClark, 2015.
Teniente Gimo, Aswang: Crippling Superstition orBrilliant Tactic? by Jordan Clark, 2017.
The Aswang Syncrasy in Philippine Folklore by MaximoRamos, 1969. (via JSTOR)
The truth about the ASWANG in Capiz by Jordan Clark, 2022.
