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)
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| 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.
