Gi ungo? Family in Toledo finds bizarre wounds, bruises on ma’s corpse

BITTEN BY ‘UNGO’? Scars found in the some parts of the body of a 75-year-old woman in Brgy. Magdugo, Toledo City. | Contributed photo via Paul Lauro

CEBU CITY, Philippines – Questions hound a grieving family in Toledo City when they found mysterious marks on the dead body of their matriarch, videos of which went viral on social media, and led many to believe a mythical creature (ungo in Bisaya) could be behind it.

The Sanchez family in Don Juan Climaco Sr. Proper in Barangay Magdugo lost their matriarch, Melecia Sanchez, last Friday, August 11.

However, when they were about to hold a wake for their mother on Saturday, August 12, they were shocked to discover multiple scars, wounds, bruises, and even bite marks on Melecia’s corpse.

Melecia, 70, died last Friday due to pneumonia. She will be laid to her final resting place on Wednesday, August 16.

Helen Sanchez-Econas, one of Melecia’s daughters, recorded a video and uploaded it on social media for their relatives to see before sending her dead mother to a funeral home for embalming.

“Tung Sabado, nakit-an namo nga naay niporma lang nga nilagum. Ang ilok naay dugo. Naa say pinaakan gihapon,” said Sanchez-Econas in an interview with CDN Digital.

(On Saturday, we saw bruises. Her armpit had blood. There was also a bite mark.)

But she said she had no intention for the videos to go viral.

The family was surprised when netizens started theorizing that the mysterious marks on her mother’s body might have been left by mythical creatures, locally known as ungo, she added.

“Sa personal lang, basin (gi-balbal) pero wa man mi makakita mao nang di sad ko sure (kung mutoo),” Sanchez-Econas said.

(Personally, we think it’s a mythical creature that did this but we didn’t see so we’re really not sure if we should believe that.)

‘Not true’

But Melecia’s husband, Anselmo, strongly objected to theories circulating on social media.

“Ni-rebelde gyud ko ana  kanang puntoha nga balbal. Kay wala man ta ka prove. Wala man ko makakita nga gibal-bal,” Anselmo told lawyer Ruphil Bañoc in his Straight to the Point program in Cebu-based radio station dyHP.

(I strongly objected to that idea of a mythical creature. Because there’s no proof. I didn’t see that she was bitten by a creature.)

According to Anselmo, he believed that stray creatures like dogs and large rats, which are present in their village, could have tried to bite his wife’s corpse.

Barangay Magdugo is a mountain barangay in Toledo City.

Meanwhile, village officials have suggested the family file a blotter with the police should they want answers on the mysterious wounds and bruises on Melecia’s  body.

Toledo City is a third-class component city that borders Cebu City in the southwest.

/bmjo

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