Keeping Filipino Folklore Alive through Pop Culture
WRITTEN BY: FRANCESA JANA SANTIAGO
Even though the Philippines is known to be a predominantly Catholic country, the culture is still rich with mythology and folklore originating from the pre-colonial generations. Our local urban legends and creatures are enough to feed Filipino kids nightmares and grow the horror cinema of the country (see the Shake, Rattle and Roll franchise). While Filipino mythology isn’t as popular in mainstream media as the Greek’s, Roman’s or the Egyptians’, it still has stories worthy to be shared. But the further we become a digitized world, the more prone to erasure this part of our heritage becomes, even more so than when colonizers first came. Fortunately, there are more opportunities this time to keep our folklore alive, thanks to the existence of modern media.
The best example would be the breakthrough that is Trese. The award-winning graphic komik by Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo took 8 years of development before debuting as an animated series in June 2021. And it was worth it considering the show earned a spot in the streaming site’s top 10 TV shows list in 19 countries, within just its premiere week! This is not only the first Filipino-made Netflix Original animated series but it’s also the first time Filipino folklore was given access to a global audience. Trese was able to deliver a detective concept that featured modernized Tikbalangs, Duwendes and spine-chilling Tiyanaks.
Although years prior to this, the NBC TV show Grimm already attempted to introduce Filipino folklore for the first time to American viewers, by having the fetus-eating shapeshifter known as the Aswang to appear in one of its episodes entitled Mommy Dearest (S3E14, 2014). This was made possible thanks to Filipino actor Reggie Valdez —who plays the role of Sergeant Wu in the show— for pitching the idea to the series creators. The episode even centered around a couple who recently moved from the Philippines and since they were expecting a child, an Aswang was following them around.
Since these, there has been a slow but prominent rise in Filipino mythology surfacing in western pop culture. For last year’s Filipino American History Month, the company Diwata Komiks launched their cross-cultural supernatural thriller Carmina: A Filipino American Urban Mythology. Created by Emmy-winning writer Mark A.J. Nazal, the story follows a troubled biracial girl who discovers that she’s part-Diwata. And during 2022, San Diego-based author Tracy Badua released her adventure novel Freddie vs. the Family Curse filled with themes on old-school Filipino superstitions while filmmaker Carlo Ladesma’s 7-minute light horror flick The Kapre premiered on Hulu as part of their Bite Size Halloween series! The short film stars half-Filipino actors Tippy Dos Santos and Nico Locco as they encounter the mythical beast while camping in an enchanted Philippine forest.
Just like with food, language and fashion, our folklore is a record of our history as a people. But just because most of it has become more of a collective memory or a trivial fact, doesn’t mean that it’s not there anymore. To this very day, even with the existence of modern medicine, most Filipinos still uphold superstitions and organic remedies that we’ve learned from our ancestors. There are also Filipinos who still believe in the different deities of nature, while others are continuing to serve as modern-day babaylans and albularyos. Our local mythology puts a unique perspective on how we see the world and by using them as source materials in creating unique forms of entertainment, a portion of our community’s cultural roots are further preserved and passed on for the future generations to experience too.