BAL-BAL
This creature digs up graves and eats the decaying bodies. It has sharp claws and teeth to rip off flesh and bone from the dead bodies. They have very strong smell and can smell the buried dead bodies. It's breath is also foul because of the rotting corpses it is eating. They steal the dead bodies and replace it with a banana tree trunk to look like the body.
There are other versions of the Balbal. Another has a long tongue that goes to the roof and makes a hole to steal a dead body inside a house. This reminds me of a story by my uncle's friend. I still remember him telling us about it when a relative died. It is in the province and they left the body on the table. Everybody was outside the house and they heard a noise on the straw roof of the house. When they came inside the body fell on the floor and there was a hole on the roof. When they went outside they saw something jump off the roof to a tree. They tried to chase it with bolos but it disappeared. When they checked the body there was blood on the forehead but it did not hit the floor. This story makes me think that it was a Bal-Bal.
They also say not to call the Bal-Bal it will hear you and come for you. If you say his name loud at night in a full moon it will visit you and eat you alive even if it only eats dead bodies. They also smell sick people and they wait until they die before they come to eat it.
