AI illustration
Aswang
People in Capiz, Antique, Iloilo and Aklan tell of the aswang, a shape-shifter that looks like an ordinary neighbor by day. At night, people say, it turns into a dog, cat or pig to harm others. Spanish writers in the 1500s already called it the most feared being in the islands.
Folklore is retold; versions differ.
Sources: Wikipedia: Aswang (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikidata (CC0)
The story
Aswang is a general word for several shape-shifting monsters in Filipino belief. The folklorist Maximo Ramos sorted them into five kinds: the blood drinker, the organ eater (see manananggal), the were-dog, the witch and the corpse eater. People say they hunt at night and weaken in daylight. Many stories show them as neighbors who look normal by day. That is part of the fear.
The belief is strongest in the Visayas, southern Luzon and parts of Mindanao. Capiz, on Panay, is the province most often linked to it. Some researchers think a real illness helped build the stories. X-linked dystonia parkinsonism is a genetic disorder found mostly on Panay. People with it were sometimes shunned as aswang and avoided doctors.
Spanish writers noted the belief early. Fray Juan de Plasencia wrote in 1589 that the Visayans feared a being called the osuang, and he said Tagalogs did not. Local protections include salt, ash, vinegar, spices and a ladder turned over at the house. Films such as Ang Aswang (1933) and the series Trese (2021) keep the figure in modern culture.