Halloween is a corruption of the Christian feast of All Hallows Day, dedicated to the saints (hallows) and our dear departed kin. It has been turned into a celebration of horror and is associated with the macabre and the supernatural.

The Philippines has its own supernatural folklore with its pantheon of characters. There’s the “kapre,” a giant cigar-smoking ogre; the “aswang,” a shape-shifting ghoul that preys on human blood; the “manananggal,” which can separate its upper and lower body and sprout wings on its shoulders, looking for pregnant women to devour their unborn babies; the “tiyanak,” that disguises as a baby and attacks when picked up.

The “tikbalang” is a horse-headed monster that likes to play pranks on travelers, misleading them until they get lost. The “diwata/engkanto” are similar to fairies of Western folklore, who are guardians of the forests, mountains lakes, rivers and seas, but can benevolent or malevolent depending on how humans treat nature.

The “multo,” or ghosts, are spirits of people who remain on earth and haunt living humans due to unfinished business or their tragic deaths,just like the “white lady” of Balete Drive, which apparition is most feared by nighttime travelers on that stretch of road.

Indeed, we have no shortage of supernatural beings in the country. But now, all these supernaturals appear insignificant in light of the horrors we are experiencing at the hands of flesh-and-blood demons, ghouls, goblins and shape-shifters.

We have had a long run of horror stories, starting with the President’s denouncement of infrastructure corruption, calling on the culprits, “Mahiya naman kayo!” in July. The avalanche of horror continues unabated.

Where else can you find a country with so many ghosts, not of the supernatural kind, but of thousands of ghost employees, who we can’t see but continue to support with our taxes. They are conjured up by our magician-politicos, who end up with their salaries without lifting a finger.

Then there are the ghost projects, which appear on paper and nowhere else. Again, our shape-shifting “sena-tongs” and “representa-thieves” weave their wands and magically increase the national budget by billions of pesos, which somehow end up in their mansions and condominium units in obscene piles of cash that will give you a huge headache just imagining how much the loot really is.

A politician’s mansion is said to be devoid of furniture just to be able to accommodate over a billion pesos worth of hard cash, which you can spend the rest of your life counting and not even finish. Not to worry, once you’re a spirit, you can continue counting until kingdom come.

The supernatural events don’t stop there. The evidence went up in smoke in a DPWH office where incriminating documents can be found. A kapre must have set the computer on fire that ended up turning records into ash. Unless evidence is secured pronto in other DPWH offices, they will also magically go up in smoke. Just watch.

What’s even more ghoulish is how some politicos’ SALNs show that they have less than ₱20 million in assets. Yet, a senator managed to gift his high-flying socialite wife with million-dollar jewelry, while some own homes in an exclusive Benguet mountain “billionaire’s compound,” truly an achievement worthy of an engkanto!

In a bizarre twist, these politicos’ “nepo babies” flaunt their ill-gotten wealth. They parade in their designer gear but turn into little monsters like tiyanaks of old once exposed.

Our modern-day aswangs and manananggals feed on the blood of millions of poor Filipinos they pretend to care for. Many die due to unaffordable health care and our children become ignoramuses in our neglected educational system due to their ravaging the treasury. Even the poor pay the 12 percent Value Added Tax that could have gone feeding their children better. Instead, it left them stunted and intellectually-challenged.

The ghost projects end up killing more Filipinos by not really fixing the problems of flooding but actually exacerbating them. Scores were washed away in floods and storms while many who waded in floodwaters got leptospirosis and died.

Now that they are being investigated, they will turn into tikbalangs to trick us into thinking these issues have been fixed with hearings, investigations, and a few low-ranking sacrificial lambs. But of course, it will just be an illusion. Afterwards, they will merrily sing and dance their way to their billionaire enclaves in their limousines, supercars, yachts, private jets, and helicopters.

So, my wish this All Hallows Eve is for the spirits of those who died due to these shenanigans to haunt the plunderers and drive them insane. Now, that would be poetic justice. But I am just making up this scenario. Independent Commission for Infrastructure, be the diwata and make it come true. Exorcise all these ghosts/monsters from our land. Please, please, please!