Teniente Gimo: The Urban Legend

Stories regarding Teniente Gimo were not popularized until the 1960’s. One such story was
famously documented by Dr. Maximo D. Ramos in his 1971 study, The Aswang Complex
in Philippine Folklore.

AN ASWANG PARTY: This story was related to me by my mother. It is said that in the town
of Dueñas, Iloilo, there was a barrio lieutenant by the name of Gimo. Tenyente Gimo had a
daughter who was a teacher. This tenyente was known in the town as an aswang but the
people didn’t have any evidence to prove it. One day his daughter arrived and she had with
her a friend who was also a teacher. When evening came, the guest teacher was not
allowed to go home to her own town. She was told to sleep in the house of Tenyente Gimo
beside his daughter. When midnight came, the lady friend of the tenyente’s daughter woke
up because of a noise downstairs. She went down slowly and she saw a very big kettle with
boiling water, and there were the relatives, perhaps, of Tenyente Gimo. She heard that she
would be killed that night. It was told where she slept, what clothes she had on, and the
jewellery she wore. What the lady immediately did was to go upstairs and change
everything she wore with those of the daughter of Tenyente Gimo and then ran away. What
the tenyente had slain he recognized as his daughter. The young lady who ran away went
to the police and reported what happened. They arrested the tenyente when they found that
what the lady teacher reported was true. Next morning the tenyente was paraded through
the whole town and they announced to the people that he was an aswang.