The Robinsons' Half-Human Half-Snake

The belief of a snake twin is very old, way back 17th century, when Fray Ignacio Francisco Alzina's 1668 History of the Bisayan Islands mentioned about it. Remember Amaya - the heroine in GMA Channel 7's TV series entitled Amaya, and portrayed by Ms. Marian Rivera? She has a snake twin she called 'Kapid'.

While for Chinese, snakes are good-luck charms for businesses, that's the reason why some of them keep snakes in their houses, more especially in bodega. Well, animals should be fed. (You know what I mean.)

This undying famous Philippine urban legend rose to popularity from no where. It was about this half-human half-snake son of a wealthy Filipino-Chinese tycoon. The rumor started sometime in the mid or late 1980s. It made a stir in the public during its peak, and till now, the story never vanished in most of Filipinos' mind. Because of the legend, some Filipinos avoided going to a certain mall, and it even affected the others. Whenever they need to go there, people avoided going to the fitting rooms.

The Legend

[Metro Manila Legend:]

A famous Filipino-Chinese tycoon had twin children - the one was a normal baby girl, and the other was a strange humanoid creature. It was said that this baby is a half-human and half-snake. No one knows what it trully looks like, if the upper or lower limb is either a snake or human. They hid it from other people's eyes to protect the family's reputation and to protect the child himself. They even pay those individuals who had seen him, to put it in secret. The child fed in animals' fresh meat, not in humans' at first. But one time, he tasted a human blood and he seemed to like it. He was raised inside their house without any problem; however, he grew in an enormous size that the house's space is not enough to support him. Additionally, his appetite to human flesh became very dangerous. Therefore, they created a perfect plan to sustain its needs. The plan was to create a shopping mall in the city with a very large chamber under it that can support the creature. The architects who constructed the secret dungeon was hired from abroad. He was brought there as soon as the building was completed. And for feeding him, few of the girl's dressing rooms were customized. Some spy cameras were installed, and the floors can be remotely controlled so that it can be opened anytime by someone. Obviously speaking, these girl's dressing rooms are traps. According to rumor, the creature was attracted to beautiful women, thus only pretty girls are victimized. Some sales ladies were rumored to have vanish suddenly. Their parents even went to the mall to find them. But the managers can simply answer that they don't know. When they checked the time cards of the lost employees, they found out that they never left there work yet. No one knows what happened next. One day, a beautiful actress happened to go to the said mall for shopping. Unfortunately, she entered the wrong dressing room, and the creature saw her and fell in-love with her. He opened the floor so he can have her. Luckily, she didn't slid straightly to the creature's hands, though she saw him, she was able to escape from the nightmare. The media learned her bad fate in the said mall and she was flocked by newscasters. One TV show made an interview with her asking about the incident, but before she was able to answer the question, the TV show was cut on air. When it came back, the actress was no where in the show anymore. Because she survived such bad fate, the father of the creature ordered their lawyer to settle the case. They paid the actress a lot of money and told her to go out of country till the news was forgotten by the public. Starting that day, her mouth was shut for answering queries about the same subject. Another actress was victimized. This time, she was unlucky because she slid directly to the creature. The actress was one of the famous celebrity that time. Because of this, the father asked someone to go on a plastic surgery and have its face resemble the actress. It was perfectly similar that no one has ever wondered her sudden disappearance. The creature lived a long life and he died with public not knowing him.

The above story was a reconstruction of the rumored legend of the Robinson's Half-human Half-snake. But before I give the rumored names of the above characters, here's the short story of another version.

[Metro Davao Legend:]

According to legend, there was this pregnant woman who was cursed for unknown reason. They went to Davao City for safe living. She gave birth to twin babies - the other one was a normal baby, while the other was a half-human half-snake. In spite of the child's strange and horrible appearance, they still accepted the baby. Both grew in a secret life; however, when the monster grew up, it became gluttonous. It's always finding something to eat. But because the family owns a department store in Davao, they imprisoned it under the fitting rooms so that whoever enters it will be victimized.

The two versions were actually identical, except that in the Metro Manila version the legend has many stories of encounters to tell. I can't find a reliable source telling who among the two is the first to spread, but other sources claimed it was the Metro Davao version.

The Rumored Names

According to legend, the famous Filipino-Chinese tycoon is Mr. John Gokongwei, the owner of Robinsons and Universal Robina Corporation. He was the rumored father of this creature. Its twin sister was Robina Gokongwei.

The first actress who was said to have escaped the terrible fate is Ms. Alice Dixon. During that time, she's in the peak of her popularity. Accordingly, she was paid to go out of country, and she lived in Canada. There is no assurance if the story about Alice is real or not, but the fact that she's silent about the issue, makes it speculative.

The lawyer allegedly hired to settle the affair was Atty. Solicitor Frank Chavez.

The second actress was Ms. Rita Avila. The Rita Avila we see on TV was allegedly fake and the true her is dead.

The mall referred to the legend is Robinsons Galleria in Ortigas. Other rumor has it that Robinsons Place Manila was the correct mall. Another one has it, that the mall is actually Forum Robinsons in Boni, Mandaluyong City.

Accordingly, the foreigners who were hired to create a plan for a secret chamber came from Germany and Great Britain.[1]

Variations

Like other famous urban legends out there, it also has variation of stories.

The reason why the R of the Robinson's logo is in the shape of a snake, is because it was allegedly inspired from the creature itself.

Instead of a spy camera installed in the fitting rooms, the mirrors were allegedly one-way windows, from which the snake-man could view its prey before activating the trap door.

An earlier story has it that the Gokongwei son, Mr. Lance Gokungwei was the twin of the snake, not Robina herself.

Mr. Lance Gokungwei, rumored to have scales in his arms.

The half-human half-snake was not actually John Gokunwei's son, but only his pet.

Other version said that it was actually not a monster, but just a giant snake - a python or boa perhaps.

Others

It was said, that a certain tabloid newspaper started to spread this story. I also found this poem which is quite an addition to our discussion, and an interesting approach of telling the story:

[Taken from Internet:[2]]

She hatched in the dank Basements of our gullibility, Warmed in the gasp of our telling. Curling in the tongues Of housewives and clerks. We gave her a body half-serpent, Half-voluptuary, and a taste For maidens and movie stars Who began to vanish mysteriously Behind the curtains of boutique Fitting rooms and water closets, Never to be seen again, Or only to be found in the parking Cellars, wandering dazed Into the headlights of shoppers' cars. How she fed on our thirst For wonders, fattened on our fear Of vacant places. Slowly We embelished the patterns On her scales and admired The sinuous grace of her spine. Avidly we filled our multifarious Hungers at belly, and lapped The marvelous tales of her forked Tongue. And as the gleaming temples Of her worship rose in the midst Of our squalor, how we trembled At the seduction of her voice, O what adoring victims we became. -----------Marne L. Kilates, January 23, 1993

Afterword

I would prefer not say anything about this. I can't even prove its existence, if it's really true or not. It's up to us if we wanted to believe the story or just ignore it.

By the way, the Robinsons Galleria was built in 1990. It was said that the urban legend circulated some time in 1980s. But to my research, the rumor really circulated in the early 1990s in Metro Manila - not 1980s. If it's true that the story originated from Davao, then the legend possibly begun to spread in 1980s.

Actually, this urban legend created another urban legend from itself.

The first one is about the two-way mirrors of the dressing rooms. According to rumor, behind those two-way mirrors are lecherous people watching someone, instead of the rumored monster.

The second one is about the origination of the rumor. According to an urban legend, the story was started by UP (University of the Philippines) Diliman Mass Communication Department. Allegedly, they created this to scientifically study how fast a rumor could escalate. It's not the only kwentong bayan that they gave birth, but this one particularly become popular.[2]

Last Updated: February 03, 2014

Sources:
[1] Contributed by: Andrew Barrientos
[2] http://www.reddit.com/r/Philippines/comments/1g18fh/filipino_urban_legends/
http://www.mylot.com/w/discussions/2363214.aspx
http://www.gl3nnx.net/blog/urban-story/robinsons-galleria-snake-a-half-snake-half-human.htm
Roseann Coscolluela
http://ph.news.yahoo.com/philippine-urban-legends-093005285.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinsons_Galleria