Ang alamat ng santol at iba pa, mga kwentong pinoy

If you haven’t heard about the Legend of Santol then you haven’t spent too many times drinking in the provinces of the Philippines. I’m referring to the joke version that would never fail to cause a group of inebriated people into a laughing fit. Here goes the short version:

Person 1: Pare, anong pangalan nitong puno na to?

Person 2: San’ tol?

Didn’t find it funny? You need a drink. A shot of brandy is advised.

One pinoy urban day, I was telling my officemates (well my staff really) about the Alamat ng Cubao (the legend of Cubao) being that our office was situated in one of the new skyscrapers in the Araneta Center. It sounded absurd but oddly enough actually made sense to me. And it got me thinking about the other legends of places I have heard from friends and wanted to write an article about them. Let me know if it’s the same version you have heard of in the comments below!

Ang Alamat ng Ilog Pasig (The Legend of the Pasig River)

Photo credits: foodmetromanila.wordpress.com

This one was told by a classmate in elementary and the gist of the story was corroborated by an officemate who lives in Pasig. I’m telling this based on the hazy details I can remember (it has been more than 20 years as of the time of this writing after all) and I may have filled in some details.

It involves two lovers, Paz and Ige. As with the usual tragedy, Paz was from a well-off family and Ige was poor. The girl’s parents did not approve of their romance. The star-crossed lovers decided to elope and start a family away from Paz’ strict parents. However, the girl’s parents found about this and tried to stop the two from running away. Fortunately they had already started to travel before Paz’ parents got to her room.

They went after the couple in their Kalesa (horse drawn carriage) while a storm had started with strong rain and winds. As Paz and Ige realized that they would be eventually caught if they stay on land, they decided to try to swim across the river to safety. Ige was a decent swimmer but the storm has caused the river to swell and flow faster than usual. They started swimming but the current was too strong for both and they quickly succumbed to the raging river.

The parents of Paz got there just in time to see the couple get separated and shout each other’s names. Ige was able to blurt out a panicked “Paz!” as he saw his love go under the water. Paz was only able to blurt “Ig-“ before the water pulled her under never to come out again. Soon news about the tragic death of the two young lovers spread around and the river (and town that relied on it heavily) was called Pasig (Paz-Ig).

Ang Alamat ng Cubao (The Legend of Cubao)

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I believe I first got wind of this legend during the time LRT was running this “Historiles” campaign. They had several materials to explain to riders what the different station names stood for.  Scrounging around the internet,  I was able to come up with two more alternative stories though all involve pointing to hunchbacks in the area.

It was said that the present day area of Cubao with its buildings and smattering of houses was once “a jungle inhabited by white ants, termites and shape-shifting witches who usually take the form of a hunchback.” (http://www.filipiknow.net/origins-of-lrt-stations/) People would be quick to point out to these hunchbacks and would exclaim “Kuba O!” in the local language. It got so prevalent that they just went and named the place Cubao (Kuba-O).

Ang Alamat ng Makati (The Legend of the City of Makati)

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No, I’m not referring to how the Binays allegedly amassed legendary amounts of ill-gotten wealth just by having a multi-level parking building built for the city hall. I’m actually talking about the origin of the name Makati.

It seems that contrary to what one would think, Makati was not derived from the tagalog word for Itchy. It was actually from an old tagalog word that loosely means “ebbing tide” (http://info.philtravelcenter.com/makati-history.php) or just low tide. Legend has it that when Miguel Lopez de Legaspi got to the area that is now Makati, he asked the locals what the place was called. These locals thought the Spaniard was asking them about the condition of the Pasig River and thus answered him “Makati-na” (https://tl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makati) and the rest was history. Makati would at one point actually be officially called San Pedro de Makati since it’s patron saint was Saint Peter.

A ridiculous alternative I read at http://www.gintongaral.com/mga-alamat/ang-pinagmulan-ng-makati/ goes like this: an American got lost one day in the area and saw a man with a horse letting his steed graze in the tall grass. The American asked the man where he was but the local was not able to understand him immediately. During their talk, the Filipino suddenly had an itching fit brought about by the grass around his leg and blurted out the word Makati (itchy this time) and the American went on his way thinking the Filipino had answered his question. When he was able to get home, the American was telling of how he got lost in Makati and thus everybody started calling the area as Makati. Absurd, but still amusing.

Ang alamat ng Malinta Tunnel (the Legend of the Malinta Tunnel)

Photo Credit: foodmetromanila.wordpress.com

Okay this isn’t really a legend but is an interesting story in itself. In the beautiful Island of Corregidor right at the Mouth of Manila Bay, there’s the Malinta Tunnel. A network built inside Malinta hill that eventually served as the last stronghold of the Americans (Battle of Corregidor) as well as the Japanese (Battle for the Recapture of Corregidor) during World War II.

Seeing that most places in the Island either had American or Spanish names, hearing the strategic Malinta Tunnel named as such seemed out of place. And it was. It literally means Malinta or full of leeches. Linta is Filipino for leech. Yes, the stronghold was named after those bloodsucking bastards.

History says (or at least the tour guides of Corregidor, I recently got back from my third historic tour of the island) that as the Americans were fortifying the Island because of it’s key position in Manila Bay they used Philippine criminals as cheap labor. Part of the fortifications of the Island was the construction of the tunnel, making use of the rocky hill to serve as a bomb-proof shelter. As the workers were excavating through the hill they encountered these suckers and thus christened the hill (and the tunnel) as “Malinta”.

And there you go! Hope you enjoyed this little tidbit. Got any other alamats you want to share with me? Let me know down in the comments section below. Have a great day!