There's no stopping Aswang Festival
By Felipe V. Celino
Inquirer


ROXAS CITY, Capiz -- The Church may frown on it but defenders say it is just the kind of event that will cast a spell on tourists and lure them into town.

Despite objections from different sectors, led by an archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church, the province of Capiz is pushing ahead with its plans to stage an Aswang Festival on Oct. 28-30.

In Philippine folklore, aswang is a viscera-sucking creature that flies at night in search of human internal organs, fetuses and infants.

Arnel Estiaga, a board member of organizer Dugo Kapisnon Inc. (DKI), said nobody can stop the holding of the festival, which was successfully held for the first time last year.

He said organizers were determined to show critics that Capiz's negative image as a land supposedly populated by aswang could be turned into an advantage.

This year's festivities, like last year's, will have a Halloween-like motif and include a parade and a masquerade ball where participants are expected to wear the most frightening costumes they could think of.

Some people with what may look like blood dripping from their mouths may also turn up at a planned body-painting contest.

But not everything will be make-believe. The bravehearted will find a booth where they can donate their own fresh, human blood for a humanitarian cause.

The festivities will be a celebration of the Capiznon myth and culture.

Bewitching the tourists

Estiaga said the organizers would exert efforts to enlighten the public about the local culture.

The three-day festival will showcase the best of Capiz "in [terms of] tempting cuisines and alluring local entertainment, beguiling tourists and visitors with a longing for the charm that only Capiz can claim as its own, making them completely bewitched," Estiaga said.

A figment of imagination

Roxas City Councilor Ramon Albar, who delivered a scathing speech against the festival last year, said he would continue to protest the use of "aswang" to describe the festivities.

Mayor Antonio del Rosario said he saw nothing wrong with the holding of the festival.

He said the organizers' aim was to show that the "aswang" label associated with Capiz and its people was just a product of people's imaginations. Besides, he added, the festival would be a pre-Halloween affair culminating on the eve of All Saints' Day.

Glorifying evil

Last year, the Catholic Church stayed away from the debate for and against the festival even if some religious groups had staged a prayer rally the day before the celebration, urging organizers to stop the event.

Some critics said the festivities would "glorify evil" and they smacked of paganism.

But in April, Capiz Archbishop Onesimo Gordoncillo joined the fray, releasing a pastoral letter which denounced the staging of the festival.

There is no aswang

The pastoral letter said the festival was an insult to God and could divide the faithful on matters of religious belief.

Defenders of the celebration say they saw nothing wrong with it since the aswang was not real, anyway.

wow first time i heard that.now lets make plans for the tikbalang festival,maybe we can get dolphy to play the tikbalang lol.

That's good. Embrace what you are known for. Very smart of them to capitalize the aswang legend.

Paganism my @$$, the church should shut up about this already. Didn't they rape our (pagan) culture enough?

^^pagan culture is whack.. aswangs are not real.

that aswang festival really is glorifying evil and i disagree with it.

You'd be shocked to know that Catholicism in the Philippines is an amalgamation of Catholic teachings and indigenous pagan practices, like everything else. The elevation of the Santo Nino, Mary and the worship of saints is reminiscent of our animist pasts that worshiped several deities..

well guess what?.. im not. ^^

its still glorifying evil..

loolz 1st time i heard/read about this...

SANA nakapunta ako dun. huhuhuhu. at wala namang evil diyan noh. hahahahhaa

no pics?

beyond good and evil...