Vampires in the Philippines

Is cryptozoology's most-famous vampire (you know the one I mean!) now on the loose in the Philippines?

(Thanks to Kithra for bringing the above to my attention).

Interestingly, this is not the first time such activity has occurred in the Philippines. In my book Strange Secrets: Real Government Files on the Unknown I revealed how American psychological warfare planners, in the 1950s, had spread tales of blood-sucking vampires in the Philippines uprising in an attempt to spook superstitious, enemy rebels.

It was an ingenious operation coordinated by one Major General Edward G. Lansdale. Born in 1908, Lansdale served with the Office of Strategic Services in WW2; in 1945 he was transferred to HQ Air Forces Western Pacific in the Philippines; and, in 1957, he received a posting to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, working as Deputy Assistant to the SoD for “Special Operations.”

At the specific request of President Elpidio Quirino, Lansdale was assigned to the Joint United States Military Assistance Group to provide assistance and guidance in the field of Intelligence, to the Philippine Army, as the latter sought to squash an uprising by Communist “Huk” rebels.
And it was while lending assistance to President Quirino that Lansdale had the bright idea of exploiting a local legend for psychological warfare purposes - namely that of the deadly Asuang Vampire.

In his own words, Lansdale would later say: “To the superstitious, the Huk battleground was a haunted place filled with ghosts and eerie creatures. A combat psywar squad was brought in. It planted stories among town residents of an Asuang living on the hill where the Huks were based. Two nights later, after giving the stories time to make their way up to the hill camp, the psywar squad set up an ambush along the trail used by the Huks. When a Huk patrol came along the trail, the ambushers silently snatched the last man of the patrol, their move unseen in the dark night. They punctured his neck with two holes, vampire-fashion, held the body up by the heels, drained it of blood, and put the corpse back on the trail. When the Huks returned to look for the missing man and found their bloodless comrade, every member of the patrol believed that the Asuang had got him and that one of them would be next if they remained on that hill. When daylight came, the whole Huk squadron moved out of the vicinity.”

And, as a result, key, strategic ground was taken out of the hands of the Huk rebels.

I suggest we keep a very close eye on matters of a vampiric nature in the Philippines...