This folk tales came from the town of Guimbal.
The name Tan Adi is always connected with strength.
It was said that Tan Adi came from Camangahan but he is married to a woman in Sipitan. He has two brothers, Andoy and Fermin and a sister, Inocencia (nicknamed Osing). Tan Adi's hobby is to catch shrimps and crabs in a creek called "Sapa Buhi" or Live Stream or Active Creek. He is using a basket made of bamboo called "tagub" where he puts some bait. He gets his catch from the basket early in the morning because it is submerged in the water overnight. He always caught shrimps and crabs enough for food everyday.
One morning, he was surprised to see that there's no catch inside the basket. This peculiar situation happened again the next morning. Tan Adi suspects someone is making a prank or is doing some tricks on him. So what he did is to hide among the bamboos near and fronting the shores of the stream. All night long he tried to stay awake to watch. At about four o'clock in the morning, his attention was caught by the rustling of leaves from the trees lining up the shores. An unexplained object is moving on this corner. When it came closer, Tan Adi saw a very tall creature. When it bows down to gather the crabs and shrimps, Tan Adi gets his thong belt and caught the giant using it and since the belt is sacred, the giant got scared. The giant attempted to get loose but Tan Adi's grip on the belt is too tight. The trapped giant ran from Iloilo to Antique and back but nothing happened.
In exhaustion finally the giant begs.
"Remove the belt on my neck and I will give you a powerful amulet."
"I will set you free if you bring me back to Sapang Buhi," said Tan Adi.
The giant did so and aside from this, he gave Tan Adi three pieces of his beard.
"This will give you an unusual strength," advised by the giant.
Tan Adi gets one piece of it and put it in the biceps of his right arm. He gave the other two pieces to his brothers. Since then, Tan Adi possesses an unusual strength.
Photo Source:
http://www.theunveilingjourney.com/2013/09/10/your-inner-green-man-gentle-giant-or-raging-tyrant/
According to history, the Parish of Oton, is the third to be established in Panay but the first to choose Our Virgin Mary to be its patron saint.
Tradition foretells that Mother Mary herself chooses Oton who name was deeply honored and venerated by the locals.
One day, a motor banca landed in Oton and included in the cargo is the image of Virgin Mary and Santo Niño or Holy Child Jesus. The crew brought the image to the church. When they return to the banca the engine won't start. They thought there is some problem with the engine but upon checking it, they could not find any damage. No matter what they do, they could not make the banca move. In an instance the captain ordered to take the Santo Niño in the church and replace it with the image of Virgin Mary. After they did it, it was a wonder they can easily move the boat. This explains why the patron saint of Oton was the beloved Mother of God while in Tigbauan is the Santo Niño.
There is a similar story to that belief.
When an earthquake named Lady Caycay struck Panay Island and destroyed the church of Oton in 1948 and the image of Virgin Mary was lowered, a group of friars decided to transfer the patron saint to Tigbauan while the Santo Niño of Tigbauan will be transferred to Oton. They helped carry and put in the banca the statue of the Virgin Mary to be brought to Tigbauan but upon reaching Tigbauan they could not be able to unload the image so they continued to other towns but the same thing happened so they decided to bring it back to Oton. When they are near the town of Oton, the boat runs smooth and slow and the engine really stopped and doesn't want to leave.
It is so strange why the Image is so light and bearable when it was carried back to the church of Oton? It's really a miracle according to the townspeople of Oton because the Virgin Mary doesn't want to leave Oton because it is near to her heart.
There are more things that happened that tells about the miracles of Our Virgin Mary of the church of Oton.
In 1944, during the Japanese Occupation, the Japanese are guarding in the middle of the plaza fronting the church. It was evening then and they are patiently watching the approaching enemies when all of a sudden they saw a very beautiful lady with long hair, dressed in a floor-length white and blue clothes and it is coming closer to them. Many people saw it and the expression and aura of the lady is sad. She said to the Japanese: "Have mercy on the people, leave this place and return to where you came from." When they look up to the towers of the church the image of the Virgin Mary, it was not there. Everyone said that for certain the lady who came up to the Japanese is the Our Lady of Immaculate Conception. Eventually indeed, the Americans came, saved the people and liberated Panay Island from the Japanese Imperial Forces.
It was reported that a tidal wave will hit their area. Oton will surely sink and flooded because it is near the sea. The people are already preparing to leave the area but when the night time came, when the giant wave is ready to hit the town of Oton, a lot of people saw a lady with a long hair wearing a white and blue dress running towards the ocean outstretching her arms open wide and all of a sudden the giant wave goes back to the ocean never smashing the town of Oton. When this took place, many noticed that the statue of the Virgin Mary in the tower of the church is missing. It was believed that Our Lady of Immaculate Conception helped the townsfolk. So the people came in front of the church and tearfully thanking the patron saint of Oton.
One early morning, a dawn after the fiesta celebration of the town of Arevalo, month of January 1948, there's a sudden jolt so powerful that it caused the destruction of the very beautiful and imposing church of Oton. The miracle which took place there is this: all parts of the church fell to the ground except the tower which stood the statue of Our Lady of Immaculate Conception. It took a long time before the image of our Virgin Mary was changed.
Truly the image is miraculous!
Photo Source:
https://oneintheirhearts.wordpress.com/2015/11/30/novena-in-honor-of-the-immaculate-conception-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary-second-day/
Long time ago before the arrival of the Spaniards in the Philippines, the Moros boarding a gabilan boat reached the shores of Barotac Nuevo and targets the town by capturing some men to be slaves. These slaves are being used in their leisure games like toreador and arm wrestling. Every invasion of the Moros bring lots of terror to the locals. One day the Moros arrived in the area again. The leaders of the town ordered the cuardilleros and other able bodied men to meet, face and fight the enemies at the outskirts of the town. They went to a designated place and hid before the arrival of the Moros. Upon the arrival of the Moros, they came out of hiding and the leader of the group shouted "bungga bungga". With this shout, the soldiers from the town attacked and fought ferociously the enemies. The battle became intense. It was stopped at about two o'clock in the afternoon in the sudden appearance of a very tall man who was dressed in a colorful clothes and a red belt around his waist carrying a small banner on his left hand. A glaring light came from his right hand hits the enemies while the phenomenon is in the middle of the way not far from the enemies. This place was called the mountain of Salihid which the battle took place. The enemies were dazzled by the blinding light and seems screaming and terrifyingly scared. They leave one by one. Since then, no Moros disturb the place. The people believed that the tall man who defended them is nothing else but Saint Anthony of Padua, the patron saint of the town.
Photo Source:
http://www.catholictradition.org/Padua/padua-gallery.htm
When the world is young, the form of relaxation such as television, computers and internet, gadgets, movies, radios and others is far from the imagination of human. During the time of our ancestors, their only form of leisure during their past time is the entertaining folk tales. In any gathering, the narration of folk tales will always be a part and never forgotten. There is a wide scope of topics in it. The themes of the folk tales are something that can give you goosebumps like the movements of the aswangs, mantiws (giants), kama kama (elves), tamawo (fairies) and others or heart pumping stories of romance, adventure or uncovering mysteries. The entertaining and pleasurable moments of Juan Pusong's misadventures. All these stories are passed through generations but could no longer traced the authors or original storytellers. Folktales are narrative prose and considered fiction.
The folktales presented in the succeeding articles are about: 1. heroes whose accounts were classified in different categories like saints, brave and strong individuals or possessing power or unusual strengths, and comic characters 2. mythical creatures like aswang, kapre (ogre), kama kama (elf), katao (mermaid), tamawo (fairies) 3. mystery like spirits, people, objects, places. Let's take a look and read some of Ilonggo folk tales.
Photo Source:
http://www.vibebookstore.com/fiction/folklore-mythology/kwentong-bayan.html
Once upon a time, there lived in Panay Island a very good leader named Datu Pinyang. Datu Pinyang is the richest and most powerful among all datus of other races in the land in those days. He is a just man and kind to people so he was loved and respected by his people.
The datu has a beautiful daughter named Mayad-ayad. A lot of datus and maharlikas or noblemen fell in love with Mayad-ayad including Datu Mapahitas, a datu of a race in nearby parts of Panay. However, Mayad-ayad preferred is a warrior of her father named Maisog (which means brave),and even if he has no nobility, Maisog is a strong and brave young man. To the young man chosen by the lovely lady to marry her father has no disagreement.
The relationship of Mayad-ayad and Maisog agreed by Datu Pinyang brought anger and fury in the heart of Datu Mapahitas because he really wants to marry Mayad-ayad and obtain the vast wealth of Datu Pinyang. Shortly after, Mayad-ayad got sick and her father called a doctor but she was not cured instead she got worse. Datu Mapahitas heard the worsening condition of the lovely lady. He decided it was the right time to carry out his plan of revenge.
Datu Mapahitas disguises and pretended to be a doctor and upon meeting Datu Pinyang he said he wants to cure the illness of Mayad-ayad and he will cure in the condition that they will follow his judgment.
Datu Pinyang asked what should be done and the pretending doctor said "It must," he said "is the roots of dita and sap of that wood." And the fake doctor continued that the one who should get those solutions is the person who has a pure love to the sick patient.
Datu Pinyang responded: "If that is so, me and Maisog will go now and find those things in the forest."
Datu Pinyang immediately went to wilderness. All of a sudden Mapahitas henchmen surfaced out of nowhere who hid behind the trees and pierced Datu Pinyang until he died.
When Maisog saw that Datu Pinyang is dead, he escaped, gather all the men of his race and presided the attack against the henchmen of Datu Mapahitas and to save Mayad-ayad.
In the battle, Datu Mapahitas was killed and many of his men and those remaining alive escaped. When the enemy troops were defeated, Maisog looked for the body of Datu Pinyang, buried in front of his house and Mayad-ayad planted some beautiful plants around it which she sprinkled with water everyday.
A peculiar event took place that the site where Datu Pinyang was buried surfaced a shrub that resembles a head with a crown and decorated around with something that looks like small arrows in the form of a saw and when it grows and ripen really resembles the head of Datu Pinyang and it was now called Pinya or pineapple by the people of the race in honor of the named datu.
The story is also widespread about a mother and child that the stupidity of the child is the root cause of the pineapple plant. It seems that her daughter is not using her eyes. Each time she was asked by her mother to get something, she just always asked her in return. This is her habit. Until her mother got sick her daughter is still doing the same thing so the old woman unintentionally wished that she will have several eyes. Pinya suddenly disappears. When the old woman recovered and got healed from her sickness she saw an unusual plant having something that looks like eyes in their garden while searching for her daughter while Pinya suddenly disappears like a bubble. Eventually, she realized that the plant was her daughter.
Long time ago, there is a couple who has a very beautiful daughter named Makapuno. The couple lived in a secluded place near the river where they have a farm. Shortly after, a young man from a neighboring town heard of the beauty of Makapuno. He decided to visit the beautiful lady. When he arrived at the house of the lady, he saw that she has a suitor. Despite of this, he did not lose hope to woo the lovely woman. In his determination he obtained the nod of the lady in her desire. They scheduled the wedding. When the young man's rival to Makapuno heard of this, he returned to destroy the lovers.
One day while Makapuno and her boyfriend is strolling along the river, came the rival to her love who has evil intention a suitor of the lady mingling in their conversation. Without hesitation, he pulled a dagger in his pocket and continuously stabbed the lover of Makapuno. The lady thought it better to face death than to be in the hands of an evil suitor. A bloodbath event took place thereafter. Makapuno was buried by a grieving parents. After a few days, a plant emerges from the place where the beautiful lady was buried. When it bore fruits, it has produces a lot. So they name the plant Makapuno in memory of their beloved daughter. Furthermore, the word puno means full so the name of this fruit is appropriate.
Photo Source:
http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/macapuno-preserves-a-la-marketman
