Last December 26-28 2009, my family and I went to our beach in Quezon Province. Nothing scary happened on the first night although I saw some elementals there in the area but they weren't trying to harm us. They were just observing.
On the second night, something strange happened. I thought this only happened in movies. But I thought wrong. My dad, mom, three younger brothers aged 21, 17 and 15, our maid and I slept in our bahay kubo (nipa hut) because our beach house is still under construction. It was around 1:30 in the morning (December 28) when I heard gunshots, I was awoken by the sound so I got up when I saw that my mom and my dad weren't in their bed and then my brother (21) also woke up because he told me he heard gunshots so we decided to go out and check what it was. When we got out my brother and I saw my mom, dad, driver and my dad's bodyguard looking at this huge coconut tree, I asked my mom what they were doing and then my mom told me that there's an aswang (ghoul). At first I didn't want to believe it. But my dad who is a sceptic also told that he also saw it. It was a huge black bird with super red eyes (like it was glowing red). My mom also told me that when were all sleeping she was awoken by the sound of flapping wings and the sound "ik ik ik ik" and it circled the nipa hut twice as if it was looking for something or someone.
My mom told me to wake up my brothers who were still sleeping (17 and 15) and our yaya (maid) so that we would all be together. My dad fired a shot again towards the tree but the huge bird was still in hiding. My dad told his bodyguard to turn of all the lights (the moon was shining so bright that night); right after all the lights were turned off the huge bird took flight and swooped down on us. I SAW IT TOO! It was HUGE and it really had RED EYES. My dad, the driver, my brother (21), my dad's bodyguard ran after the huge bird and they tried to shoot at it again but the bird perched on another coconut tree near us and hid again. After 10 minutes or so, and after 5 more gun shots my Dad finally hit it. The huge bird cried. I got so scared. It was the most spine-chilling cry I've heard. I wasn't sure if "it" was a cry for help or just because it got hurt. It flew again away from us then after a minute we heard our neighbour's dogs howling like crazy animals so my dad and his bodyguard checked that area and the ones who got left decided to patrol the area.
When my dad and his aide reached the fence, they saw two birds crawling (why would birds crawl?) and when the birds saw them those birds tried to attack them. My other brother (15) and I decided to patrol the back of the house and wait for my dad and his aide to get back when we heard the flapping of the wings again so I decided to turn on the flashlight I was carrying and shone it in the direction in where we heard the sound, there we saw it fold its wing and it was looking straight at us. I started cussing at it and I also told it that we weren't scared of him or her. I wasn't afraid of them anymore. The roles where switched. They were the hunted and we are the hunters. Sadly, they got away. But I'm ready for the next time. I'm not afraid of them anymore.
I'm going back there next week and this time I also have a weapon with me. We'll see who's stronger... US or THEM...
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Honestly, I never really thought about why nobody's ever donated any of those things to science. However, I can only guess and those guesses open up whole new avenues that'd give way to even more avenues to truths best left unseen lest I go mad from the revelations.
Folklore-wise, aswang are ghouls who would steal into a fresh grave and dig up the corpse to eat.
Now, if we go with hard science, shooting one dead and presenting it to a scientist to dissect might lead to messy, uncomfortable truths. That there are families and villages sometimes suspected of being aswang makes this even more uncomfortable... And goes right into conspiracy theory territory. How could a bunch of cannibals exist in this country without anyone finding out?
Going with pure mysticism, the aswang would revert to its "normal" skin when dead so the poor mortician would still be wondering why you shot up a perfectly healthy person. This, then, makes one wonder if the dude sitting in the nearby cubicle during the nightshift is one of them with a day job... Which leads one to wonder why people haven't been disappearing en masse during their days off, or why there're lots of homeless people still about.
Going with the even divide between the two... The physics just don't add up.
Personally, I think the myths and folklore in the Philippines are there to justify the unexplainable and to instill a necessary fear for the younger generations to survive. That's not to say that I don't believe in them (I read up on this stuff for a reason); but sometimes, when faced with the unknown, the only thing we can all rely on is faith that things will be alright in the end if we're willing to work on it.
That being said, death by having your liver ripped out by a ghoul is not a nice way to go, so I'm hoping the OP was spinning yarns and is in perfectly good health.
In a Lovecraft mood,
Mazz