A doctor's life: Aswang

One dark and moonless night - well that's how stories of witches (aswang) should start, right? This one begins rather cutely. It actually started with a newborn baby being admitted in the hospital for fever. In a couple of hours another baby arrived and was also confined as the first one. Like any day in the hospital we went about our duty seeing to it that the IV fluids were flowing, the medicines were administered and the patients' conditions monitored.

After dinner that night while we were watching TV, my wife became uneasy and she announced that something just wasn't right. She sensed that we were being watched by someone outside the window. There was a light that was on, on that side of the hospital and I was certain that no one could stay that high while looking through the window, because our living quarters was elevated. Just after she told me what she sensed, there was a commotion in the opposite wing of the hospital, in the room where the babies were now crying uncontrollably. In a minute the nurse came running to our quarters and warned us that a witch was seen going around the hospital and that we should shutter all the windows and doors.

I hurried to the ward to verify the nurse's report and all the adults in the ward nodded and said that the sighting of the witch was positive. They said that Landasan has a resident aswang who lives by herself on a hill some distance from the main village. It was common knowledge here that this old woman was the witch who made night visits to homes that had newborn babies.

Some armed guys who were with the family of the patients volunteered to stay outside to monitor the witch's movements. In a while the babies stopped crying and the night passed without another round of disturbance. Early the following day some of the guys in the ward became agitated and started shouting. "Hey it's morning already, did you forget to go home?" I went to the ward and asked what the commotion was all about, and they pointed to a figure far away that was walking aimlessly around. They said that the lady over there was the witch. Before I knew it she was standing at the entrance of the hospital right in front of me and all the people inside were watching to see what I would do.

The old woman was untidy with long unkept hair and she emitted an odor that is like she hadn't taken a bath for a long time. She held some brooms in her hand and wouldn't look at me but stepped forward to try to gain entry. I held her at bay and asked what she wanted, but she didn't answer and instead thrusted the brooms forward like she was giving them to me while forcing her way into the hospital. The people inside the hospital were now getting mad and demanded that she leave and go home. When she realized that I wouldn't let her in, she turned around and hastened home.

Was she really an aswang? Did the circumstances that night prove that witches do exist? These questions hung about my head for some time after that, and the thought of coming directly in contact with an aswang sounded more like a novelty to me than a harrowing experience. 

Landasan - where witches still hang out at night!