The Kapre: Bigfoot of the Philippines

[From “Creature Feature Newsletter”. 1995.]

Kapre is the Philippines Bigfoot version, but looks more like a man than an ape. It is distinguished as tall (about 8 to 9 feet), dark, hairy and with beard that only wears a piece of cloth called "bahag," just to cover his sensitive part. Sightings of Kapre are so popular and common all over the country. Most town people only feels or hears the Kapre's presence, but some can be able to see them. According to elders, this creature wears a "magical" belt to make him unseen by human.

In our town, somewhere in Bataan, we live in one big compound or property planted with different kinds of plants and trees. It was only my close relatives who lives there, and it's only an about five houses inside that property which I think has an area of 6,000 sq. miles or more.

My grandfather always tells us his own experience about this creature. When we were still young, he always told us that there was a Kapre walking around the backyard. And that Kapre has an infatuation with my eldest Auntie and now, the Kapre also has an admiration with my Auntie's eldest daughter.

At the back of my Auntie's house, there are tall bamboo trees. According to my cousin, she always feels the presence of the Kapre from those trees. She often hears knocking on the wall in the middle of the night, smells of tobacco pipe and dreamt about the Kapre peeping from the small window while she's asleep. Her sister-in-law also saw the Kapre's hand on the window, according to her; the Kapre's hand is big, dark and hairy.

Last year 2003, my mother's cousin visited our place. They stayed in my uncle's vacant house and at the back of the house, there's a jackfruit tree. It was about 4 o'clock in the morning when my mother's cousin woke up to fetch water outside. When she opens the backdoor, she saw a very big man sitting under the jackfruit tree, that smokes big tobacco and the eyes are glowing in red color. That makes her very frightened and she knows that is a Kapre, so she ran back inside the house and she almost forgot to close the door.

One of our neighbors who stay on the other compound encountered the Kapre as well. It was middle of the night, when our neighbor woke up by the noise of his chicks and chickens. Those chicken only sleeps on tree branches and when the man went out to check the animals, chickens has already fallen from the trees and scattered on the ground. So he picked them up one by one and while he's picking up the chickens, he noticed a very big man not far from him who is walking away. He only saw the Kapre's lower body because there are trees around the place. He said that he's just half of the Kapre's height. He was scared to see that creature in the middle of the night and like my mother's cousin did, he ran out and left the chickens on the ground.

I haven't encountered this Kapre, but I'm now fully convinced that this extraordinary creature really exists. It is because my younger brother, who is just ten years old, has also recently encountered the Kapre.

It was about four to five o'clock when my mother left to the wet market. My brother awaken and as well as my nephew. Both of them decided to walk outside the house on that early morning to wait for my mother at the jeepney or bus stop not far from the house. They brought this flashlight or torch light and my brother is holding it. While they are walking and coming nearer to the mango tree, my brother points the flashlight to the tree. He was frightened when he saw the Kapre who is according to him is a big man, sitting under the tree, which smokes tobacco pipe, glowing red eyes and wears only shortpants (I think what he mean is, the Kapre is only wearing a "bahag"). He is telling and pointing it to my nephew that there's a kapre but my nephew couldn't see him, so they just ran back to the house and just wait for my mother there. Since then, my brother always stays at home and never stays late outside the house or goes out early in the morning if it's still dark.

*A special thank you to Andrew Martin for bringing this article to us.

WCSRO, 2006.