Philippines is rich in superstitious and beliefs which are influenced by tribal, western and Asian folklores. These tales, superstitious creatures and paranormal experiences are practiced and believed by both primeval and modern Filipinos.

There are areas in the Philippines particularly the remote, rural places who believe on the existence of supernatural beings not just in Filipino legends and folk stories but in real life. Some of these creatures are listed below:

1. A tikbalang or tig balang is a half-horse, half-human creature. It has a head of a horse, a body of an adult man and hooves. It usually appears on the night of full moon looking for a female prey who will bear its offspring. A tikbalang usually rapes or forces the victim to a sexual intercourse and in some cases, the woman is unconscious.

It is also told that a tikbalang is a playful creature which usually makes a person imagine of unreal things. A story once told that a tikbalang misleads the travelers or hunters their way in the mountainous, forest areas. If it happens, one must wear the top inside-out so the spell will be broken.

2. A kapre is a filthy, hairy giant who likes to smoke huge rolls of cigars and hides on top of the balete, old acacia or large mango trees. It is a Filipino counterpart of a Sasquatch who scares away little children at night.  A kapre is like a tikbalang which appears on full moon. It is said that when a person is stuck in a place and walks in circles, he is being played by a kapre. In order to break the spell, one must wear the top inside out.

3. A manananggal is an aswang that can fly. It usually hunts babies and unborn fetuses at night. As soon as the sun sets, a manananggal bathes her body in chicken feces mix with potion.  For humans, it’s disgusting but for her, it’s like an aroma therapy which triggers her cravings for human flesh and blood.

While massaging her belly, she separates herself from her lower body and simultaneously develops large, bat-like wings. Her fingernails have lengthened. Her eyes are flaming red and her fangs grow like those of vampires. Her face is mostly different from her human form.

Her sense of smell is stronger than humans especially in tracing the scent of her prey. Once found, she waits until everyone in the house is fast sleep. Then, she inserts her tongue through the roof, the wall or the window. It can even pass through the tiniest hole in the house. The tongue is long, threadlike and extremely flexible with a sharp tip, which punctures through the woman’s womb and sucks out the fetus.

In some stories, a manananggal is also a sorceress. She lives in a remote, isolated place in the barrios or villages and eyes on her target. It is also the best and suitable place for her to hide her lower torso when she’s hunting.

If there’s no pregnant woman in the area, she opts to seduce men and takes them to a secluded area where she eats them alive especially the organs which makes her more strong and agile.

According to old folks, in order to capture a manananggal, one must search for her lower torso while she’s hunting and sprinkle large amount of salt, ash and/or garlic on it. Her upper body will feel the tormenting pain and will return for it. Usually the hunters set a net made of large ropes around or where the lower torso is located, so when the manananggal arrives, they can easily catch her. Once she’s in the net, the rope must be tied on a coconut tree or any large tree to support her strength. They said that a manananggal’s strength is equivalent to five adult male carabaos or water buffalos.

While in suspended captivity, a manananggal will try everything to escape; she’ll try to flap her wings to break through the net, course the hunters and promise revenge, or sometimes, she will beg and negotiate. Once she negotiates, the hunters offer to help her get rid of her course or she will die. If she chooses to remove the course, the hunters will make a huge fire and covers their faces especially the mouth with cloths or masks. Then, they will give her a pint of salt to eat, which will only affect her monstrous form. The salt will make her vomit the coursed stone and should drop directly into the fire else it will look for a new host among the hunters or the spectators.

A manananggal or an aswang is not fully aware of her condition. To become a manananggal, a member of the family especially the elder, should be a manananggal, who will pass the course (in the form of a small egg-like stone) to a daughter or a new generation of manananggal through the mouth. If a manananggal’s human form is aging or dying, she should pass the stone to a member of the family, else she will stay suffering until someone accepts it.

4. An aswang is a Filipino version of a vampire. The only difference is that an aswang hunts for unborn fetuses, terminally ill, bed-ridden or dying person. An aswang can be a man or a woman, but a manananggal is usually a woman. An aswang is similar with a manananggal in some ways, an aswang cannot fly but can change forms to lure her prey or escape her hunters. Normally, she changes into a black dog, a black cat or a black pig in avoiding her hunters. In order to know the difference between an aswang dog and a normal dog; an aswang dog is a lot bigger than a normal dog or even the hybrid ones. It doesn’t listen to a whistle nor wag its tail. It usually runs away from humans. It is said that one must stab or slash the tail of the aswang dog because it is usually its head.

Old stories state that an aswang has a self-healing power. If she gets wounds even scratches, she licks them and in seconds they will go back to its original condition. But if her back get wounded, especially if the wound is big and deep, it will be difficult for her to lick it. The continuous hemorrhaging and infection will cause her death.

Some people said that to prevent an aswang and a manananggal from entering the house, cloves of garlic and salt should be placed all over the area, particularly at the window panes, door steps and any entries to the house. If a suspected aswang or manananggal enters the house in a human form, place an inverted hard broom behind the main and rear doors, elders say that she will not stop saying goodbye until the broom is removed.

Old people also advised that a victim-to-be must always have crushed garlic or garlic mixed in salt wherever she goes. This prevents the aswang and the manananggal from smelling her scent. Burning tyres especially at night also repels them from entering the house.

5. The white lady or ang babaeng nakaputi is usually seen by men. Although she does not lure and kill them, causes their car accidents particularly at night. Some said that a white lady usually stands at the side or in the middle of the road, a foot above the ground in long, white night dress with long black hair. She appears to men who are unfaithful to their wives or partners. In other areas of the country, she shows up in moving cars or sits beside the drivers, and asks them to take her home, where the address she gives is actually a dead end, a cliff or a broken bridge.

6. The headless priest or pugot na ulo is literally a ghost of a headless person who is believed to be a priest who was killed during the Spanish era. It is said that he appears in churches, cathedrals and even cemeteries looking for his missing head.

7. A dwende is a dwarf or an elf that brings good or bad luck to humans. It usually lives in houses, trees, underground, mound or hill in the mountains or forest areas.

If a dwende lives in the house and the human owners are treating him well, he gives them wealth or makes their lives easy. Humans usually say “tabi-tabi po” (excuse me) when walking around the house and never say bad words against the creatures. The family especially the children leave food on the table or under the stairs where the dwende supposedly dwell as a way of thanking them, which makes the dwende feel important and respected and will stay with the humans for as long as they are wanted.

Contrary, if the host family doesn’t treat the dwende well, a family member especially a child will get sick or bad luck happens in the family.

In some stories, when a dwende likes or befriends a human, he will take him to his kingdom. A day in his kingdom is a month in human’s lifetime. Once he is offered food, he must not eat the black ones else he can never go back to the human world and will eventually be transformed into a dwende.

7. A sirena or a mermaid (syokoy for a merman) is a sea creature with a human upper body and a fish tail. She usually sits on the rock or at the seashore and sings enchanting songs to attract the fishermen and wanderers.

Some said that a mermaid is crying so badly when there’s heavy rain and storm on the ocean.

8. A tiyanak is a not baptised dead or unborn baby who is sometimes regarded as an aborted fetus who comes to life to take revenge on its mother. It changes to its human form on daylight or when it’s with his adaptive parents and changes to a devil-looking, little creature at night to hunt. Most of the times, the foster parents are not aware of its true nature.

A tiyanak acts like an ordinary child when his real mother is around. But when he feels threatened by the people around him and even by his mother, he changes into demon-like features and eats his prey.

A tiyanak doesn’t eat human food, it only drinks human blood and eats human flesh.

It is said that its mother and the sunlight are the two things that can kill a tiyanak.

9. A santelmo or St. Elmo’s fire is believed to be a ghost of a wicked, greedy or horrible person. It comes back to seek forgiveness from the people he sinned against at.

Some people believe that if there are two santelmos seen chasing each other, these are the ghosts of the wicked person and that of his victim fighting against each other. If a person sees a santelmo he must say the Apostle’s prayer (The Creed) to get rid of it. In some places, they say swear or curse words to make the ghost feel bad and disappear.

10. An impakto is similar to a tiyanak. But an impakto is an offspring of a human mother and a demon who takes the form of a baby to kill humans. Stories state that an impakto is afraid and can be killed by a crucifix, salt, sunlight and the holy water.

11. A nuno sa punso or a goblin on the mound is similar to a dwende but he only dwells in his mound in the forest. When passing through a deep forest especially on a mound, a person must say “tabi-tabi po” or “excuse me” to ask the nuno the permission to pass, else an outraged nuno will make the person ill that no medical treatments can cure. It will only go away once a spiritualist or a shaman summons and asks the nuno to forgive the victim. A food offering or a sacrificial hen must be killed on his mound. The person recovers only if the shaman is not too late to ask for the nuno’s forgiveness else the victim will die.

12. A multo or a ghost is derived from a Spanish word “muerto” which means dead. A multo is an earthbound spirit who has unfinished business before his death.

Filipinos believe that a multo is often a spirit of their dead kin who visits them either to check or say hello.  Some believes that a multo appears to communicate or send a message.

13. A mangkukulam or a witch uses black magic and casts evil spells to humans. She uses needles to prick on voo doo dolls.

14. A manggagaway is a kind of mangkukulam who specializes in bewitching or making potions. It was told that women especially at late 30s who are desperate to get married ask the help of a manggagaway to give them potion (gayuma) or help them find husbands.

15. A mambabarang is a kind of mangkukulam who uses magical or possessed insects to bring harm to her victims. Some people, particularly women, who are victims of betrayal or physical abuse of their partners, seek the help of a mambabarang to help them take revenge on their abusers or the people who caused them unbearable sadness. Among these witches, the mambabarang is regarded as the most dangerous, because the spell could inflict serious damage or could kill the victim.

16. An ek-ek is a birdlike creature that is like a manananggal which comes out at night to hunt for human flesh and blood. Some people say that the ek-ek and the manananggal sometimes work together to hunt for food.

17. A diwata is a guardian spirit who is believed to guard the forests, mountains, water and soil. She brings fortune to those who look after her domain and harms those who destroy it.

18. An engkantada or engkanto is derived from the Spanish word encantada which means enchanted or charmed, are fairies and nymphs who dwell in the forests and water areas (rivers, seas, brooks, etc.).

Filipinos generally call higher supernatural beings as engkantada (female) or engkantado (male). Similar to a diwata, an engkantada is also a protector of nature and can cast good or bad spells on humans.

19. A bungisngis is a playful, happy one-eyed cyclop who lives in the forest and woods.

The word bungisngis in Tagalog is derived from this creature which describes a person who laughs easily at anything or a person who laughs unstoppable.

20. An amalanhig is a Hiligaynon creature who is similar to a vampire in a zombie state. It is believed that this creature is an aswang who couldn’t transform itself and rises up from his grave to kill humans. Amalanhig creatures cannot go into deep waters and can only walk in straight lines. So when this creature attacks, a person should run into the lake or river, run in zigzag or climb up trees or high platforms which cannot be reached and stay there until the sun is out. Like vampires, they are afraid to sunlight.

Elders advised that humans should not speak of the supernatural creatures particularly saying their names on Tuesday and Friday because these are the days where they can hear and recognize who we are and where we live. And, on the night of their hunt, they might come for us for revenge.