Digging hidden treasures in the Philippines may sound so easy especially when you own some of those high-end equipment such as metal detectors and scanners. But, this isn’t really often the case where locating the item and dealing with dangerous traps aren’t the only obstacles but also some violent spiritual entities.

On this post, let’s cover the most commonly encountered mythical creatures in the Philippines by treasure hunters while working on their projects. They really do intervene with your excavation and it will be too critical to just ignore them. Ignoring them often result into failure and unexpected accidents.

The Giant Kapre

One of the most common places where the JIA (Japanese Imperial Army) buried their Yamashita treasures were under a large tree. Now, these creatures called, “Kapre” dwells on top of such large old trees. Their physical feature is similar to human but they are just big. They aren’t wearing any clothing but their body is covered by their thick curly hairs. In short, they are hairy creatures.

Most sightings and reports about Kapre is that, they are males and they live alone as a solitary creature. But, what’s really fearsome about them is their paranormal ability. A Kapre can actually control his target not allowing him or her to escape. Some are saying that you can only get out from the entity’s invisible grip by removing your shirt and wear it “inside-out”.

A Kapre can also use its huge roll of lit cigar that mysterious never burns out as a weapon to attack its victim. He can blow smoke around the area and dip that lit end of his cigar to anyone around.

I have several projects that involved Kapre and they are the hardest one to deal with especially when they are living in a “Balete” tree. It seems that they love to dwell much on this kind of tree that they do not want to leave no matter how much you offer them. Thus, every time we saw that there is a Balete tree around a certain prospected site, especially an old one, we immediately move to another project after confirming that there is a certain entity living in it.

Dwendi or Duwendi

In the western world, people refer to the “Dwendi or Duwende” as dwarves. But in the Philippines, these creatures do possess more enchanting charm that one would never attempt to mess with them. In relation to treasure hunting, these little creatures loves to build their dwelling place that has good fortune on it.

So a Yamashita treasure buried in the middle of the forest is likely to have dwendi residing on that spot.

The good thing is that, there are already many stories about dwendi who gave fortune to a well deserving person. This include showing that person the exact spot where a Yamashita treasure is buried.

Engkanto or Diwata

These creatures dwell in either the forest or sea. But since we are treasure hunters on land, let’s just focus on those that are in the forest or mountains.

“Engkanto or Diwata” are very powerful entities who protects the forest or mountains from any intruders. They are known by the locals as physically attractive that anyone would easily fall for their looks. However, there is really nothing good about them because they are malevolent creatures. Once you see one of them, it only means that the entity is there to harm you.

Many treasure hunters have already experienced encountering enkanto or diwata where one of their crew goes missing. Some of the victims are so lucky enough to escape and come back alive after several months of being lost but there are also unfortunate others who does not.

White Lady

One of the most common entity encountered by treasure hunters and by most individuals is the “White Lady”. Many people believe that these spirits are female ghosts who cannot find peace on their deaths the reason why they often spook their victims.

The reason why they are called white lady is that, they are wearing white long dress and they have long hair covering their face. What makes them creepy is they can float and just instantly appear behind your back revealing their scary face good enough to give you a heart attack.

If the locals have a scary perception about the white lady, treasure hunters treats them less differently. These female ghosts in white dress tends to show the location of a hidden Yamashita treasure but in exchange of something that they want. In most cases, it is something that will put them at peace.

Ulong Pugot

The “Ulong Pugot” is perhaps one of the most terrifying mythical creature of the Philippines. These are undead human creatures but their heads are cut-off where they are carrying it on one of their arms. Some reports claim that they move in large groups riding on their horses.

One successful Yamashita treasure hunter revealed to me that he was only able to recover the precious objects all because of the ulong pugot who told him about it. He first thought that the creature will harm him but instead, they gave him reward. There must be something that they saw in him or something that he did why he deserve that treasure.

Multo

Everybody knows about “Multo” or ghost. These are spiritual entities of the dead who can’t find peace on their death just like the White Lady describe above. When it comes to the Yamashita treasure, you may be surprised to know that that a lot of blood shed especially by the innocents were involved. The JIA even purposely used them as human sacrifices to their buried loots.

The good thing about ordinary human ghosts is that, they are the easiest entity to deal with. Just give what they want and that’s it. Although, some of these ghosts can be very deceiving to ask treasure hunters for another human being to be sacrificed. Do not buy from this kind of demand because it is a trick or perhaps they are just trying to test you if you really deserve the treasure.

In most cases, they often ask for animal live stocks as sacrifices. They will also ask for clothes and some cash. According to our spiritual medium, they need cash to spend it on their journey towards their home. As for the clothes, of course they need to look presentable to their family.

Moreover, these spiritual creatures shouldn’t be termed or classified as mythical because it sounds that they only exits in folklore or horror stories. No, they are not and they are out there. As a treasure hunter myself, I already have experienced facing most of the creatures mentioned above. If you know someone who is too skeptic about this, I already know a lot of places that I can suggest about where you can bring this individual to prove it right into his or her very own eyes.