Tiktik

Tiktik is a kind of aswang, and people in Capiz and nearby Visayan areas name it for its call. Capiz on Panay is often called the home of the aswang. Tellers say the tiktik flies at night as a bird-like creature and hunts people. The sound is part of the belief. Writers note that calls blamed on aswang, such as tiktik and wakwak, sound much like night animals, including bats and the Philippine flying lemur, called kagwang. Some of these animals have been hunted because people feared they were aswang.

The aswang itself is an old fear. Spanish colonists noted as early as the 1500s that it was the most feared of the island monsters. The word covers vampires, ghouls, witches and shape-shifters. The tiktik is one local form.

One sad side of the belief should be said plainly. A genetic illness found mostly in families from Panay, called X-linked dystonia parkinsonism, makes the body twist and the tongue push out. Writers note that such signs were once linked to aswang, which unfairly hurt families. The film Tiktik: The Aswang Chronicles came out in 2012.