WE are all very familiar with Big Foot – a tall ape or man-like creature in the north America. There have been photos and videos of the man-like ape. But we are not here to talk about that. We are here to tell the tale about our own BigFoot – who attacked two residents and disemboweled goats and chicken in the area. Residents called it the amomongo.
The incident happened just recently to which eye witnesses tell of a hairy man-sized creature.
In Brgy. Sag-ang, La Castellana, Negros Occidental, two residents reported to then Mayor Alberto Nicor and the police that they were separately attacked by a “hairy creature with long nails,” on the nights of June 9 and 10, 2008.
It was described as a creature about 5 feet and 4 inches tall, and looks like a monkey.
An amomongo or simply gorilla in English was confirmed by Sag-ang Brgy. Capt. Rudy Torres.
Brgy. Sag-ang just so happens to be located at the foot of Mt. Kanlaon , which has many caves where the creature could live.
Courtesy: Lar Dos Mitos
But Gorillas are herbivorous, predominantly ground-dwelling great apes. The genus Gorilla is divided into two species: the eastern gorilla and the western gorilla, and either four or five subspecies. The DNA of gorillas is highly similar to that of humans, from 95 to 99% depending on what is included, and they are the next closest living relatives to humans after chimpanzees.
However, the amomongo is supposedly a hairy white ape that disembowels chickens, goats, and other small animals and then eats their intestines, a far cry from the herbivore eating apes.
The incident of the amomongo attack made headlines as many mainstream media carried the story.
On June 9, 2008, the creature reportedly disemboweled numerous goats and chickens in the area for the purpose of eating the entrails.
On June 10, 2008, it then attacked Galvez and Aguilar. Medical records reveal that Galvez and Aguilar sustained numerous scratches on their faces, backs, and abdomens.
Many Filipinos familiar with the BigFoot story relate it to such or even the Yeti.
That is even if the scientific community holds that it is just a legend mixed with mistaken identity.
But the native community holds that it is a wild animal, not an intelligent being like a witch or aswang.
So is it an entirely different creature that is dangerous even for us? Maybe. Probably. Maybe.
But how much of this is true?
In researching for the story, I came upon a local folktale called “Amomongo and Iput-Iput,” or “The Ape and the Firefly.”
It said that the Amomongo has also been translated to mean the word gorilla, even if it is not a native animal to the region.
If you are interested in reading more about it, click the link here.
Much of the details in today’s story came fro various newspaper and online sources.
Mayor Alberto Nicor had told the media that the so-called ‘amomongo’ is not a witch or ‘aswang’ but a wild animal.
He theorized that since Sag-ang is an area at the foot of Mt. Kanlaon, it is not impossible for an ‘amomongo’ to live in Sag-ang, considering that the area is at the foot of Mt. Kanlaon.
He added the animal may have been hungry.
“This is one possibility because there may be no food now on the mountain. Or it might be that ‘amomongos’ habitat has been disturbed by humans, thus, it runs wild,” he said.
Nicor had alerted residents in nearby barangays even as he advised Sag-ang residents to be calm but to also be prepared with arrows or anything that could be used in fighting the ‘amomongo’.
I admit that the amomongo is a fascinating story which could be a good read. But there is one thing bothering me. If it is as they say a gorilla and gorillas are herbivores, why attack animals? Sure they might have considered humans as a threat, but to disembowel and just eat animal entrails. Sounds like an aswang to me.
But you decide.
Banner Photo Courtesy: Sinaunangpanahon
