To the Filipinos, the aswang is a creature as real as any other creature on the face of the Earth. I live around these people and trust me when I tell you that you can't change their beliefs regarding this creature. I once asked my wife why we never heard of things like this in the US and she couldn't explain it rationally.
The Wikipedia Article on "Aswang"
My wife was born in the Visayan islands, another group of islands in the Philippines. It's on those islands where the aswang belief is the strongest. My wife's family lives here on the island of Luzon now, but their beliefs came with them.
The Wikipedia article describes aswangs exactly as my wife describes them: The red eyes, the reclusiveness, the proboscis and the shape-shifting.
Recent Occurrences
When the girlfriend of one of my brothers-in-law was pregnant, he (Joshua) spent many nights awake because he thought an aswang was nearby. I tried to persuade him that it was nothing more than superstition, but he wouldn't have any of that. I didn't see what he saw and or hear what he heard.
One night, an old lady tumbled down the hill in front of our house. I can't describe the terrain, but we live in the mountains and she was someone who lived further up. Anyway, she was taken by tricycle to the local hospital.
When the tricycle returned to this area, the same old lady was already back and sitting on the side of the road. It was physically impossible for her be back before the tricycle, never mind the amount of time she would have had to spend at the hospital getting checked out. I don't have an explanation for what happened, but every person in this neighborhood believed she was an aswang. She hasn't been seen in this area since that night.
What are they, really?
Some people theorize that people have seen lemurs and colugos, shortly after being around particular individuals, and have attached those images to the people they believe are aswangs.
Aswangs, as far as the descriptions go, are a combination of vampire, werewolf and witch and are almost always female.
How much of the folklore is true, I can't tell you. It's proven, however, that all myths and legends start with a basis of historical fact that gets exaggerated and altered as time goes by.
What do you think they really are?
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