The Alleged Story of the Urban Legend
The Philippine culture won't be exciting and interesting the way it was if there's no abundant supply of urban legends. 1990s has been surprised with a mysterious rumor regarding this particular mall, Robinsons Galleria. The urban legend is all about a supposedly hidden mysterious creature behind its dressing rooms. The mysterious creature was depicted to be a half snake, half human. But don't be too quick to belittle its identity just yet, because that creature is rumored to be the twin brother of Robina Gokongwei, daughter of Robinsons' founder and business tycoon, John Gokongwei Jr. Now, that is quite a very interesting story, right?
According to the urban legend, a famous Fil-Chi (Filipino-Chinese) had twin children, 1 girl and 1 boy. The girl was born normal while the twin brother was depicted as a humanoid creature as he looked so different. He has both features of a human being and a snake. The family was able to live peacefully by hiding the boy from the world to protect the family's reputation and himself from humiliation and prejudice. The twin children lived a normal life as kids but not until he tasted human blood that he find delectable and when he grew enormously that their house cannot accommodate his size anymore.
The half-human/half-snake's appetite to human blood intensified as days go by that it turned out to be very dangerous. The family made a plan to still hide him from the world by creating a large chamber that will serve as his chamber. The team who planned the structure was hired from abroad to ensure that the family's hidden secret will still remain as a secret. It turned out to be a mall to avoid suspicions about the snake chamber. The creature was placed there after the building was constructed. His appetite turns out to be very hazardous that he wants to eat human flesh as well.
According to some sources, every time that the half man, half snake is hungry, he will be picking one beautiful girl that is using the mall's dressing room. The creature only wants to eat beautiful girls, that's why it is believed that there are cameras on the fitting rooms and the creature has access to all of it. Like a screening room for him to pick his victim. Once he chooses his victim, the said floor is going to open which sends the girl to a numerous series of pipes which leads her to the creature's chamber. Once she's delivered to the chamber, the half-human/half-snake will eat her alive. There are also other beliefs that the girl will be raped first before she gets eaten by the creature.
The creature's growing appetite to young and beautiful girls got stronger that some pretty salesladies of the mall also went missing and the owners of the mall just pays a huge sum of money to the missing ladies' families to keep them from persecuting the corporation.
Though the urban legend is quite convincing to believe to, it was also debated during the height of its controversy that the creepy story was just a negative propaganda to the mall, which was booming during that time. Well, the alleged black propaganda indeed made others believe that it is dangerous to go to that mall while some just snubbed it and still supported the mall without hesitation.
Filipina Celebrities Linked To The Urban Legend
The urban legend even got stronger and reached the Filipinos when a famous Filipina actress named Alice Dixson allegedly got its turn to be a victim of the creature but luckily managed to escape. Another actress that was linked to the urban legend was Rita Avila.
Alice Dixson even once claimed that she survived the human-snake once when she went to a Robinsons Mall. In which Robinsons Mall, I don't know. Further, according to stories, the human-snake fell in love with her. Deciding not to kill her. And Alice escaped.
However, Alice, said that it didn't really happen in her later interviews. Some people say Alice just broke the news because she is trying to revive her career. Some people say Alice changed her statements because she was paid by the Gokongweis. There are also gossips that even Rita Avila became a victim of this human-snake. However, there are no more stories about Avila's encounter with this human-snake creature. - pinoy-horror-storiesAlice Dixson even debunked the urban legend as she bravely returned to the said mall for an event.
MYTH: Alice was once abducted by a man-snake inside a mallImpact To Popular Culture
Just go with it, will you? It was widely believed back in the '90s that the Gokongwei family built Robinsons Galleria to serve as the romping ground of their mutant offspring Robinson, who was supposedly the twin brother of Robina Gokongwei-Pe.
Urban legend indicates that the man-snake fell in love with Alice, prompting him to abduct her from the ladies' fitting room. Robinson however refused to harm the actress, and Alice was able to escape his lair. This is obviously a load of bull, but during her FHM Autograph Signing event at Robinsons Galleria earlier this month, Alice jokingly acknowledged the alleged incident. "Mark this date, bumalik pa rin ako dito!" she told reporters. - fhm.com.ph
It is believed by some that most of Filipinos are drawn to things that has a touch of reality, like reality TV shows, etc. So it is a no-brainer that this urban legend can also inspire people to write a story about it and produce a movie which can be attributed to the mall's urban legend as one of its inspirations or pegs.
An official entry to the 2014 Metro Manila Film Festival was described to give a closer look at the intriguing creature inspired by the urban legend about a half-human, half-snake hiding in a mall's department's store. The film is entitled "Shake, Rattle and Roll XV", it is not clear if the movie plot was intentionally created to resemble the urban legend.
One of the most popular urban legend in the Philippines is about the twin snake which was allegedly seen inside Robinsons mall gets movie treatment in the latest installment of the country’s most popular movie franchise, “Shake, Rattle & Roll.”
Kapamilya actress Erich Gonzales was chosen as the one who will portray the role of a twin by a mythical snake, she will play the role of a mall heiress in the latest movie installment of highly popular horror movie from Regal Films. In one of the episode of Shake Rattle and Role with a working title “Ahas,” Erich Gonzales will play the role of twin sister to a snake-woman. - philnewsConclusion
Up to this day, there is still no concrete evidence that the half-human/half-snake creature does exist and it preys on beautiful ladies on a mall. It is still not clear if there was indeed a snake chamber under the mall. Since everyone seemed to have denied their creepy involvement to the urban legend, I don't see that it is fair to avoid going to the mall. The urban legend may be a product of bad publicity stirred by its competition. Still, bad publicity is still publicity and the mall would not be standing tall up to this day if the rumors did hurt its reputation. But talks from different people who remained to be anonymous claims that the creature is indeed true, it is safe to assume that this urban legend will still tickle our imaginative minds as we want to further look for details that may support the urban legend's veracity.
True story or just a hoax this Robinsons' Snake Chamber story, one thing is for sure - Filipinos will still regard this urban legend as one of the most interesting and creepy urban myths of all time.