“Ara na, ara na si Diablita
Ang malain nga kontrabida
Sunog diri, sunog didto
Bomba diri, bomba didto.”
-a Talisaynon nursery rhyme
Years before Stan Lee created Spider-Man and the X-Men, years before Japan introduced their Super Sentai and Kamen Riders, and years before Mars Ravelo’s Darna and Captain Barbel wowed the Filipinos, there was a story of a superhero in Negros that could have been as epic. For a certain reason, however, such story was nearly forgotten.
In the early 1920s, at the height of the American occupation of the Philippines, a certain terror menaced the once peaceful town of Talisay, a town next to Bacolod in the north. Children were reported missing, some people found dead, houses randomly exploding, and wide sugar cane fields engulfed by fires in a single night. The Talisaynons called it a plague. It was a problem not just for the common people but also for the local authorities - the Insular Government, which was by then training the country for the eventual true independence.
The name of the terror was Diablita. Or that’s what the people called her when she was accidentally spotted by three people doing her atrocities. Dressed in a tattered black cloak and masked with the skull of a deer with notable horns, Diablita created a hellish image, hence, earning her the name. A female diablo, yes, with her flowing long hair behind the mask. Much like a villain for the superheroes in the years to come while those were the days when comics were not yet available.
In December 25, 1924, Christmas Day, the porch of Don Felipe Gaston exploded killing his eldest son Jose Gerardo and three American visitors. Martha, a maid of the family, testified that she had seen a lady in black with a weird mask running out of the gate after the tragic explosion. “Kahaladlukan! She has horns!”
Two months after the Gaston Mansion incident, the sugar canes near reaping in Hacienda Lacson were burned to nothing. Don Rafael Lacson almost got mad after announcing the amount of his losses. The supposed sugar was for export to America once processed. “There was a woman…a skull for her face…she ignited the farm that night…she got away when I was chasing her.”
A series of murders happened from then on until the end of the year. Robert Davids, 29, was found dead in Matab-ang River with his penis missing. The same fate happened to the soldier Joseph Redford, 34, found rotten in a canal. The authorities suspected that the murderer had, somehow, a grudge with the ‘kano’ or the Americans. But they doubted about that when a Filipino, Roman Magbanua, was found dead in Dos Hermanas.
The worst was with the children. While the murders were happening, some boys and girls of ages six and below were reported missing. One notable missing was Francisco ‘Isko’ Locsin, the son of the haciendero Don Generoso Locsin. Isko’s yaya was preparing his milk one night when he was abducted. “She has long hair…and a mask…a mask with horns like that of an usa.” The nanny said she tried to run after the mysterious woman. “She vanished with a white smoke!”
“How ruthless! Not satisfied with killing the men…and now our kids!”
“Protect our children! Our children should be accompanied by either of the parents in going to school and they should be home by 5pm.”
“God save us! May He stop Diablita’s evil and give justice to all of us.”
From a distance, Diablita herself was listening like an omnipotent goddess. “Fools!” She looked at the mirror and studied her face, her beautiful 18-year old face. “How dare you call this beauty diabolical. I am not the demon! Those Americans are YOUR DEMONS! They promised us freedom but they have become worse than those damn Spaniards!”
YOU ARE READING
The Forgotten Dark Tales of Negros
Mystery / ThrillerIn the southern town of Ilog, a municipality sandwiched by mountains and the sea, a powerful family once existed that was feared by everyone. The head of the family himself, Don Godofredo Vargas, was rumored to have killed ten people in his lifetime...
