It was almost 4 pm when we arrived at Mang Reno's farm. We carried all the supplies from Roberto's truck. Mang Reno was busy chopping driftwood near the tool shed at the right side of the porch. I told them we'll start planning once my brothers get there. But we needed a lot of firewood, rock salt, kerosene, coconut oil, torches and crucifixes. After the mass, we would ask the priest to come and bless all these and the materials we would use for weapons too.
Mang Reno asked where were the garlic?
“Are we cooking adobo, Mang Reno?” I asked and added, “We bought cooked food already for dinner.”
“No, to ward off the aswangs,” he answered.
“Ah, garlic to ward off aswangs. That’s never true, Mang Reno.”
It was just a scam perpetrated by a garlic farmer in Ilocos. To sell more of his produc
