#ManilaEncounters

“A young mangkukulam harbors a deep dislike for her annoying classmate. She casts a curse on her classmate, dooming him to slowly lose the one he loves the most. A few days pass, and the witch falls ill with a mysterious sickness which she can’t seem to get rid of. @UntalanArrel ”

Late February of this year, the Manila Encounters hashtag became viral. What started as a tabletop roleplaying game became an avenue for people to share their true to life horror stories and short fiction tales based on Philippine folklore.

How did this come to be and what sparked Filipinos in Twitter to turn it into something more?

Dragons and Tabletops

“THE DRAGON OF PASIG, as large as your house and 5x as smelly. Its skin is plastic bags and sh*t and tetra packs. Its breath is corrosive factory smoke. It eats people, but it is tired of masa and wants to know what glutathione skin tastes like.” @bjrecio

The hashtag is traced back to Twitter user BJ Recio who created the hashtag on the 24th of February for an online tabletop roleplaying game (RPG) set in Metro Manila. The first entry was based on the book “A Time for Dragons: An Anthology of Philippine Draconic Fiction” and was about a so-called “Dragon of Pasig.” But what exactly is a tabletop roleplaying game? According to John Kim’s article entitled “What is a role-playing game,” tabletop roleplaying is a form of roleplaying game where players declare their actions by narration. They describe their characters, what these characters speak, etc. and abide by certain rules introduced at the start of the game by a Game Master. The creator of the hashtag intended to start an online tabletop RPG for Filipino RPG players in Twitter. This, however, sparked other ideas from Twitter users who created their own short stories with horror as their central theme forgetting what his hashtag was truly aimed at.

Girl in the mirror feat. Bloody Mary

“Walk into the libingan ng mga bayani and press an ear to the grave. Listen to the simmering, angry silence of three thousand unjustly killed and the terrified screams of a dictator finally getting his due.” @isnotsamantha

Later on, tweets surfaced of people sharing their real life experiences of horror stories centered in Manila as well as urban legends. This was when the hashtag became viral. From stories of how Bloody Mary asks how someone’s day went after they summon her to legends of the three black women of Intramuros and how they signaled the destruction of the walled city. The stories started to evolve until some even decided to end with comedic twists.

The hashtag soon not only centered on Metro Manila but further expanded to other cities and provinces in Luzon which later spread through the whole country. The #ManilaEncounters soon became an avenue forFilipinos in different islands and regions in the country to share their own horror stories, historical fiction and urban legends in their area. This also sparked conversation on school hauntings and political issues in the country as well as tragic historical events. Among those featured were the burning of Club Ozone and the hauntings behind the Manila Film Center which were backed up with links to articles on what happened and photos.

#IloiloEncounters

“1PM. Jaro Cathedral. People were lining up for the Candelaria statue. A woman carrying her child approached a man and asked for water. The man rejected. Typhoon Frank hit Iloilo one week later.” @sonnrox

Other provinces and cities decided to create their own localized hashtags to share stories within their province. Iloilo was not an exception. From tales of how Candelaria often disappeared at night to buy Growee at a nearby drug store to the rumored ghosts stalking the halls of famous universities. This became a platform for Ilonggos to dig into historical events in the city.

“ It was you/your mother/Inang Bayan/ Rizal/*random person’s name*”

“You saw a lady crying, looking for her 2 children. But it wasn’t Sisa trying to find Basilio and Crispin. It was Inang Bayan looking for Kapayapaan and Katarungan.” @Its_me_Rei

Soon after, certain formulas to the hashtag were developed. Among which were those ending with “That girl was you/your mother/your sister/Inang Bayan/some-prominent-female-figure.” The hashtag began to lose its touch until what used to be a platform for horror-seeking users became a laughingstock.

People started to use the hashtag as a guilt-inducing platform. #ManilaEncounters tweets started to lose their poetic touch and became clichés. What it was originally intended to do was not what it became. Avid followers soon started losing interest after cheesy and overly repeated tweets started to surface.

We cannot deny, however, how this hashtag became a way for people to be socially aware and also to delve deep into the realms of historical fiction. People started to discover Philippine Speculative Fiction and other Filipino Anthology books. Twitter users started wanting to know more about historical events and political taboos.

“The daughter of a certain lawmaker has been mysteriously appearing in photographs of a college graduation ceremony, her face blurred but undoubtedly there amongst the graduates. This is, there are no records of her ever being a student there. @danysian ” /CE