With the Halloween season upon us, sharing scary stories has become popular again. And some of the spookiest tales are the various Pinoy urban legends that have haunted many people’s memories through the decades. Let’s do a rundown of the modern tales that will send chills down your spine.
What are urban legends anyway?
If you are not familiar with the term, an urban legend is a contemporary story shared by people as if they are true. They are a modern take on traditional folktales, with “urban” referring to the cities where the stories take place. While we are on the subject of scary Pinoy urban legends, these tales can also have a more humorous angle.
People pass down these stories orally, sometimes with a grain of truth in them. However, each new retelling adds another layer of embellishment. As such, you would often find dozens of variations of the same tale in different provinces. But these different variations make them more appealing, as you get a different story everytime.
In recent decades, mass media has helped spread and popularize these urban legends. They are popular filler stories for many tabloids back in the day. Several movies were also about these tales, adding more layers to them. The advent of the Internet in the few years have even helped repopularize and spread them to new audiences.
Now that you know what these stories are, here are local urban legends that a must to listen to.
Pinoy urban legend no. 1: The Snake Man in the Mall
This one is probably the most popular Pinoy urban legend, mainly because it involved a well-known actress and a prominent family. As the story goes, Robina Gokongwei-Pe, of the Gokongwei business family, supposedly has a half human-half snake twin. Storytellers claim that the monstrous twin is the source of the Gokongweis’ wealth.
To keep it hidden from the public, the family made a secret room for it in their flagship mall Robinsons Galleria. According to the stories, the creature feeds on women. There are supposedly even elaborate trap doors that let it get into the ladies changing room for its “meal.”
During one of its outings, the snake man reportedly chanced upon actress Alice Dixson changing clothes. Upon seeing the creature, Dixson screamed “Tuklaw! Tuklaw!” and asked for help. Soon, the story hit the tabloids and caught the attention of Filipinos. Terrified shoppers refused to enter the dressing rooms if not accompanied by staff.
The story has since been debunked as a mere rumor, possibly spread by competitors. Dixson herself refuted all the claims and said that she just did the screaming for fun. However, it remains popular, with hoax videos showing the supposed snake man littering the Internet.
Amusingly, Robinsons itself got into the act, parodying the story in one of their ads.
Pinoy urban legend no. 2: The jeepney ride
This next chilling tale is popular with college students, especially those who come home from classes at night. No one knows where the story originated. But you will find almost every university having their version of it. The version coming from UP Diliman is particularly popular because there is a regular jeepney route inside the campus where it might have happened.
As the story goes, a female student was coming home late from doing a class project. She boarded an empty jeepney and asked the driver to drop her at the terminal outside of the campus. While en route to their destination, the driver keeps glancing back at the student through the rearview mirror. Because of this, the girl started getting scared.
All of a sudden, the driver took a different route than what the jeep regularly takes. Now really frightened, the girl demanded that the driver let her off immediately. However, he just kept quiet and continued driving. Minutes passed before the driver finally resumed the regular route and reached the girl’s destination.
Furious, the girl hurriedly got off. But the driver called her attention one last time. “Miss, when you get home, take off and burn all your clothes.”
“I was looking at you from the rearview mirror and you had no head.”
As it turns out, this is a sign that the girl will die. The driver decided to change the route to confuse the spirits that are coming for her life. In one version of the story, the girl finds out in the morning that the driver died in an accident.
Philippine urban legends no. 3: Maria Labo
This Pinoy urban legend comes from Iloilo. While it might not be familiar to those in Metro Manila, the story is well-known in Western Visayas. Parents often use it to scare children so as not to go outside during the night. As is with many urban legends, there are countless versions, but this is the most common one.
Maria is a married woman with two kids. She and her husband dutifully try to provide for their family. However, their earnings were not enough. As such, she decides to apply for work abroad. But luck was not with her and she returns home years later, depressed and near the brink of insanity.
One night, Maria’s husband came home to see her cooking as if everything is back to normal. He asked her where their children were but she did not answer. The man asked her again and she answered with a creepy grin and pointed to the refrigerator. When the husband opened the ref, he discovered the hacked remains of his children.
Enraged, the husband struck her with a large bolo, or “labo.” The slash created a large scar on her face. Maria fled the scene and has since haunted different provinces in the Visayas. She is said to hunt and feed on kids.
Pinoy urban legends no. 4: San Juanico Bridge and children’s blood
Even in modern times, many people still believe in superstitions regarding the construction of buildings and other infrastructure. One common belief is the padugo, or the offering of pig or chicken before the construction of the project. The offering is said to make the building’s foundation stronger.
However, there is a recurring urban legend stating that, instead of animal blood, some bridge builders supposedly use children’s blood instead. One of the bridges that were allegedly built using this macabre ritual is the San Juanico Bridge between Samar and Leyte.
According to some stories, a fortune-teller told the project manager about the way to make the bridge stronger. Believing the tale, the manager ordered the bridge workers to kidnap street children. They then slit the kids’ throats and mixed their blood with the concrete poured into the foundation. The workers were also said to have included the kids’ severed body parts in the mix.
What made the tales believable during that time was the number of missing children cases before and around the time of the bridge’s construction. However, no one ever established a direct relationship between the two events. Many now believe that someone just made the story up as a way to scare children from going to the bridge.
Scare your friends with these spooky urban legends
While many of these Pinoy urban legends are no more than just some imaginative tales, they still send chills to those hearing them for the first time. And you will find more of these tales once you start sharing with your friends. Gather around and have a spooktastic time telling creepy stories this season.