Request Approved

It is said that this is a true story, but there was a sumpa (a sumpa is a Visayan word for curse, or interchangeably means a magical spell) on the story; that is why no one can remember the exact places, names of the persons and the year when this happened, but I think I can narrow it down to the 1960s and the 70s, or probably the 50s, okay so its pretty wide but the way I heard the story and the setting that my uncle and my dad described it seems to fit between those decades.

BOHOL
The story starts somewhere in the rural area of the island of Bohol with Ereneo a maningitai (Tuba farmer) was collecting his Tuba (a local wine from coconut), he checks it for consistency of taste and alcohol strength, making sure its not too sweet and not to strong, he does this every single day at dusk. But... this is not all that he does... dusk after dusk he hears the Wakwaks' calls 'wukwukwuk...' 'wakwaakwak...', and every time he hears their calls he innocently jokes "Hey! guys, let me go with you!" whilst climbing up the coconut tree.

For years he has been doing the same routine, but one night, one summer night... it was a whole different story.

THE APPROVAL
It was a night like any other night, or so it seemed. The night has just crept in and Ereneo climbing down the coconut tree noticed someone who seemed to be waiting for him below, the man was medium built and looking decent. "Let's go", says the man, "Go where?", Ereneo replied. "You've been asking for it for years. Now that your request has been approved, you have to ask where?" Ereneo confused, bewildered, excited and scared, soon found himself panting and wanting to refuse; because he has never met this person before, and suddenly it dawned upon him that after all these years of him joking about wanting to go with the Wakwaks... it finally came true, he was also thinking that this could be a joke or a prank. Trying to be polite, while at the same time guessing if this person is really a wakwak or not because he looked just like a regular person (and a bit well dressed than him at the moment since he was wearing his working clothes). Ereneo finally found the courage (while still doubting) and asked, "But I can't fly how can I go with you?", the wakwak replied 'I'll carry you-- piggy back style'. So off they went and flew, SUPERMAN style.

THE HUNT
To his amazement the person was really a wakwak, and he has no wings, he didn't bother to ask the creature how he could fly, because he was still bewildered at that time. In about a half an hour they left he noticed that the moon was up and they were already flying above the waters, crossing the sea to another island.

Curiously, Ereneo asked, "Where are we going?".
"Were off to someone who is about to die, we've been waiting for him to die for days now," exclaimed the wakwak.
"And how do you know that he is going to die?"
"I can smell him, he smells like a ripe Jackfruit, its a very irresistible smell, sweet, sweet smell. New Borns and babies in their mother's womb too smell sweet... very irresistible," furthered the wakwak.

THE PREY
They settled on top of a nipa hut; in the old days the rooftops were made of nipa leaf (a nipa is a kind of a palm tree). They started to hear people talking, so they opened up the leaves to see the people below. They saw five people, one of them was ill and lying on the bed, to his right is an albulario (or sometimes called as a mananambal; a local shaman or witch doctor) with an apprentice beside him. The other two figures were standing on the other end of the bed, Ereneo couldn't see their faces, they were dark figures, it seems that even with the lights on, their faces were always indiscernible, like there was a force that always shades their faces.

The wakwak seeing that Ereneo was confused on the two mysterious characters, explained that those two are dili ingun ato (For a lack of a better word or translation, roughly translated it means not like ours, according to Judeo-Christian doctrine these beings are evil spirits or fallen angels, but in retrospect; I think these beings are also the gods of the old, before Christianity and Islam was introduced in Luzon, Visayan and Mindanaon archipelagoes, they used to call them anito or as the Tagalogs would call evil spirits maligno, I think it would be safe to call them anito to shorten the name of these beings).

"That man is a farmer, her promised the anitos a padugo if has a bountiful harvest this season," explained the wakwak to Ereneo."Those two there are the anitos, he promised the padugo."
"Can they see them? How come I can see them at all?"asked Ereneo."No, they can't, you can only see them because of me, my presence with you has given you some abilities to see them," explains the wakwak.

I am not an expert on animal offering here in the Visayas, but usually it is called padugo roughly translated it means the shedding of blood, every time I see a padugo they just simply slash the neck and the main vein and let the poor animal die bleeding. It is believed that the spirits or the anito do not literally eat them but they find satisfaction in smelling the blood or the kill, or even the meat, it is also traditional to cook the meat and offer it on a makeshift altar to offer to the anito.

Of which he did get a bountiful harvest that season but he failed to do a padugo, hence the anitos are punishing him, but these anitos were furious, they have another agenda; they weren't there to punish him but to take his life and bring his spirit as a captive or enslave his spirit who knows all Ereneo heard was that one of the anito will take his spirit with him.

While still on top of the roof, Ereneo saw the two anitos moved towards the bed ridden person and they were pulling something out of him, it was a ghostly like thing coming out of him, he realized that they were grabbing his kalag (a person's spirit or life force). As he was about to ask the wakwak what on earth is going on, he was gone, looking back down he could see the wakwak's eyes glowing red, right beneath were the feet of the transgressor (in the rural areas the floor was either made of wide planks of wood or bamboo splits and there were gaps in between them). Thinking back, he realized that the wakwak was also after the kill, waiting for an oppurtunity to grab the poor man's spirit when the anitos successfully kill him. As they, the anitos were trying to grab the transgressing farmer's spirit, he convulses, and every time that happens the albulario holds on to the farmer's head and the anitos looses control of his spirit, that goes back inside of the farmer.

While this was going on several times, he suddenly heard someone coming and announcing that he has arrived. To Ereneo's amazement he saw the two anitos run and jumped out of the window, like they were running from someone or running for cover, when he looked back at the wakwak he has also disappeared. Finally the identity of the new visitor was revealed, he was the most powerful albulario in town.

GOING HOME
Ereneo was worried, really worried now, because he wasn't sure where he is, and his ride left him, and he is still stuck on the roof. What is worse daybreak!

Early morning the town mayor while eating his breakfast heard chatters from the townfolks, when a group of them passed by his house, he stopped them to ask; "Hey, what's going on?"

"Oh, were off to that house over there, you see were going to kill the wakwak stuck on the roof," answered on of the men.
"What? A real live wakwak up on the roof, tell everyone to wait I want to see what a wakwak looks like before you kill him," the mayor said authoritatively.

Arriving at the scene, the mayor asks the people who were gathered for the kill, "Is that the wakwak? That I heard so much about," the crowd answered yes.

And someone from the crowd even explained why the wakwak is still on top. "He is stuck there because daylight caught up with him, he has no powers during the day." The mayor upon hearing this and realized that he has nothing to fear from this wakwak during the daytime, ordered that he be brought down for questioning first.

"Are you really a wakwak?" asked the mayor.
"No, nyor mayor(a slang for Senior Mayor, a term left from the Spanish Colonial years), I am but a lowly Tuba Farmer, as you can see here I have a bolo with me," replied Ereneo, as he told his tale of what happened to him and what transpired that evening. At this point the mayor believed him as it somehow corroborated with the story of the albularios.

"Thank you mayor for believing in me," expressed Ereneo, "may I also ask where I am now, you see we traveled above sea water and I know I am on a different island right now."
"Oh you are in Negros Oriental," answered the mayor(not sure which town of Negros, so I have to use the provincial name).
"Mayor would it be alright with you if you could spare or loan some fare money for me, I need to go back to Bohol, you see I do not have any money with me right now."

So the mayor gave him some money so that he could go back to his town in Bohol.

Wakwak: The Introduction.

Every culture has its own share of mythical creatures, a Wakwak is a Visayan Mythical creature it is similar to the west's vampires. For another definition of what a Wakwak is try this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wak_Wak.

A Wakwak is a mythical creature that feeds on humans or preys on humans. At night they make a sound that goes like wakwak(where a is read as u in buck), hence the name Wakwak. There are different discriptions of a Wakwak, but generally it is said to have fangs like the vampires, with sharp nails or sometimes they are claw like nails (used for slicing and mutilating their prey). Unlike the vampires they do not feed on the blood, but rather eat the meat of their victims, some said that they only eat the heart, and some even describe them as having vampire like method of killing their prey (as in drinking their blood). Unlike the vampires, Wakwaks do not die when exposed to the sun. Wakwak fly when hunting for their prey, it is said that they have wings much like that of a bat, and it is also said that the sound their wings make is wakwak hence the name, but then again it is unlikely because some stories have mentioned that when Wakwaks make that wakwak sound it is comparable to a wolf's cry or call, like coyotes or dogs make, its somewhat like a howl or a bark, it is also said to be a communication sound; it comes out of their mouth not the flapping wings as described in wikipedia.

Wrapping it up, a Wakwak, is a Visayan mythical creature that is similar to a vampire, it has claw like nails, and makes a sound 'wakwak' hence its name, it also has a bat like wings to fly. Wakwaks either eat their victims, their victim's heart, or sometimes drain and drink their blood, lastly they can go out during the daytime (naturally in their human form).

Of course there are other varieties of a wakwak, they seemed to have more powers or abilities not mentioned above. I will discuss them further in the stories to come.