The Witch Cauldron

(A Story from Dumangas, Iloilo)

A few years back, there was this alleged sighting of a mananagal in Metro Manila. This piece of scary news was played up by a number of newspapers , and was in fact, the banner story in some tabloids. This caused quite a stir in many households with pregnant women and infants.

According to Maximo D. Ramos in his extensive research of Philippine folk beliefs, one of the most dreaded character in Philippine folklore is the aswang (witch)who can self-segment. The Tagalogs have a name for this preternatural creature who cuts its lower torso at will and returns to its severed part usually before sunrise after feeding on human entrails. It is called ang manananggal, the self-segmenter. And because of its need to suck out a victim’s internal organs, the self-segmenter is also referred to as a viscera sucker .

Dr. Moises Ponteras (Ph.d in Philippine Studies, U.P.) also mentioned the belief in the powers of the aswang by the country side folks in his dissertation Folk Healing In Iloilo. According to him the fear of aswang and other preternatural beings spring from the ancient animistic religion of pre-colonial beliefs in spirits of dead ancestor. Four hundred years of Western acculturation and Christianity have not entirely displaced our indigenous culture specially since most of our beliefs find support in Christian practices. He said the belief in the spirit world is stronger in the rural areas where even educated and wealthy Filipinos turn to old-age beliefs in the face of phenomena they cannot understand. This explains the widespread interest in aswang stories even among sophisticated city folks.

It was not surprising then, when Goring Bartolome, a lady doctor from

Paranaque tells me that she is deathly afraid of witches and sorcerers. She claims her mother-in-law had an up close and personal witch encounter that involved her neighbours in Dumangas, Iloilo.

“ My biyenan ( mother-in-law) is an Ilongga and like most septuagenarians who live along the coastline of Iloilo she believes there is more to life than meets the eye. And by this she refers to the superstitious beliefs and practices that abound in that area. Modern youth, the old lady asserts are so gullible to science fiction stories but cannot accept the probable existence of supernatural beings. She wonders why it is easier for them to accept horrible mutants with superhuman powers like the Ninja Turtles than the existence of a Tenyente Gimo, the legendary cannibal witch of Duenas, a small town in the outskirts of Iloilo City.”

“”Ang manoghilot” was how the people of Dumangas called Tiya Pansay. The “ manoghilot” loved to regal her customers with stories she picked up from the country side. But before she shared her story, she would cross herself. When asked why she did this, the old woman said this “shielded” her against evil retaliation from the people who might feel maligned with her story telling.

Curiously though, before Doc Goring Bartolome shared with me her biyenan’s grisly tale, she also made the sign of the cross. She claims this is “ tu-od gid nga istorya” , that it is a true story. But is it really? You be the judge:

Teachers Tiyo Juan and Tiya Lucing Perdices were retired public school teachers who had no child of their own. Their pride and joy was a nine year old girl who had strayed into their lives when they were both in their late fifties. She was the child of an unwed mother, a desgraciada- whose married boyfriend walked out on her when his wife found out about them and threatened to sue. Marina with her one year old baby had joined an out of town group who were Juan and Lucing’s co-teachers at the Iloilo Provincial High School.

The teachers had hired a van to bring them to Dumangas and Marina had brazenly pretended to be a close relative of the Perdices who needed a ride.

With unusual bravado, Marina had convinced the old servant who was in charge of the couple’s farm house that she and her baby were relatives and had in fact, been invited to stay over night. Lola Tarsing seeing how tired and hungry the baby looked, warmly welcomed them with food and warm milk. There there had been no instructions or provisions for over night staying guests, and so Lola Tarsing gave mother and child her own room for the night. The Perdices couple were in the town plaza, two kilometres away. They were busy attending to their guests and helping out with the festivities.

At the break of dawn the morning after, the still sleepy husband and wife were awaken by the cries of a baby wailing for her mom. Apparently the child panicked when she awoke and found herself tied to an armchair with a sturdy piece of braided fabric. Beside the child was a plastic bag containing a few pieces of baby clothes, a can of powdered milk and a hurriedly written note addressed to the couple.

A glass of warm milk and bisuits quickly pacified the toddler who turned out to be such a cheerful, playful and lovable cherub. After recovering from their initial shock, the childless couple forgot all their misgivings and decided to take in the baby. However, since both teachers still had two years to go before retiring, the child was left in the care of Lola Tarsing and a another younger maid. But every weekend without fail, Tiyo Juaning and Tiya Lucing went home to personally take care of “their” little girl.

She was christened Maria Victoria Angela or Mavic for short. The binyagan was engrande and coincided with the town fiesta with practically the whole barrio in attendance. . Conspicuously absent from the celebration was Lola Sepa, an octogenarian who owned the medium size

farm right next to the Perdices. The farm was next to a deep ravine which served as a natural barrier between the two properties.

A large portion of the Perdices farm, had now been replanted with lush flowering shrubs and qunow retired, owned one of best tended farms in the area which had recently been partially re-planted with flowering shrubs and quick bearing fruit trees, This was the playground of Mavic, a cheerful, bubbly youngster who easily made friends with everybody. There were very few people in the farming community who did not know her because almost everywhere the elderly couple went, the little girl tagged along. She was a joy to have around and her foster parents adored her. If there was anything she missed, it was the company of children her age. You see, their nearest neighbour was the childless, cantankerous octogenarian who owned the farm across a ravine.

Lola Sepa was an embittered old woman who now kept to herself after her pretty and vivacious teen age granddaughter, Carmina, failed to come home one evening ten years ago and was never seen again. Tiyo Juan and Tiya Lucing had once been close to both women but the tragic disappearance of the young girl changed all that. Grief had turned the once gentle and friendly grandma into a snarling, inhospitable recluse who now shunned all contact with the farming community and was hardly ever at home . To make matters worse, she had released two large , snarling dogs to patrol her farm. Nobody was welcome at her place anymore.

“I wonder how Lola Sepa fends for herself,” Tiyo Juan commented one afternoon as he smelled the aroma of roasting meat coming from the direction of the old woman’s abode. “ I haven’t seen her in ages.” “Nor I,” agreed his wife. “ Father Tirso made the same comment last week “ Looking up from the adobong dalag she was cooking, she made the sign of the cross and whispered. “And do you know what else Father Tirso told me? He said Compadre Tibo once came to see him in church and reported something disturbing. He had stumbled across a human

skeleton at the far end of his farm, hidden behind a clump of bamboo. What frightened Compadre was the fact that a spear he recognized to be his lay beside the bones. He recalls this was the weapon he used on a large, black dog he saw under his house keenly observing the comadrona as she attended to his daughter –in-law who was in labor. The spear pierced its side and remained imbedded in the animal’s body even as it fled howling in pain. Compadre suspects the skeleton to be that of a young female. A rusty, girlish bracelet still encircled her wrist.”

Tiyo Juan stiffened, suddenly remembering what his Pareng Tibo confided in him a few years back. He also recalled how a weeping Lola Sepa had approached their group as they were celebrating the birth of Tibo’s first grand child. They were drinking tuba at Tiyo Kalaw’s Tuba-an when she begged them to please help her look for her granddaughter who failed to return the previous evening. They had combed the entire area and searched the whole night but found no trace of Carmina.

An unnamed fear gripped the old man. Looking up at the darkening sky, he voiced out his concern. “Why is Mavic not home yet? Did her teacher say the practice would take the whole day?” Worried, the couple decide to immediately fetch the girl. There was no other path she could have taken and so they were sure they would meet her along the way. To their dismay, they were told by Mavic’s classmate whom they met down the road that the young girl had not reported for class and was presumed sick by everybody.A search party was immediately organized to comb the surrounding area but she was nowhere. Four more days of anguished searching followed until there was only one place left to investigate – the house further down the wooded area. The search party knew Lola Sepa’s place was the most unlikely place for Mavic to stray because thorny bushes and wild vegetation had practically concealed the tiny cattle trail that led to the forested area after years of unuse.

The stench of rotting flesh and human excrement assailed their nostrils. They found the yard littered with dried leaves and garbage, apparent-

ly unswept for years. The once attractive little cottage was in a state of disrepair. A few feet away from the sagging house, slivers of red meat covered by buzzing flies had been laid out to dry on top of a discarded sheet of metal. Yards of thoroughly cleaned entrails hung from a nearby clothes line. Apparently Lola Sepa had a preference for tapa and longaniza. The group had come prepared for a chance encounter with the black, ferocious dogs. They had taken with them bamboo spears and bolos. Fortunately for the group, but for a large crow that hastily flew out of the window, the house was empty. All that was inside were a pile of soiled clothes mostly of children, some dirty dishes and a large butcher’s knife covered with dried blood. In the kitchen, a large cauldron sat atop smouldering coals where they found the cut-up body of a child simmering among vegetables and herbs. The head was missing but a sliced portion still carried an ear with a tiny pearl earring. It belonged to Mavic. Tiyoy Juan let out one agonized scream, clutched his chest and sagged to the floor with eyes glazed with shock and horror. He died right there on the spot.

The hysterical group , shocked out of their wits by what they had seen, went berserk and torched the entire property to the ground. Everything that stood within a radius of a two kilometers was in cinders. Had it not been for a sudden, heavy downpour , the raging inferno would have reduced the entire barrio to ashes. The deep ravine that served as a natural barrier, had luckily spared the Perdices farm from being gutted by the uncontrollable fire. Nothing had since been heard of Lola Sepa. As a pall of gloom slowly descended on the once cheerful and peace loving community, folks began to eye each other with suspicion. It was mind boggling how a family of witches had come to live and interact among these god-fearing, gentle people who had unsuspectingly befriended them and even entrusted their youngsters to their care without ever suspecting their true nature.