Some bridges are engineering feats. Some are mirrors of the power that built them. Tonight we cross one of the darkest spans in Philippine folklore: the San Juanico Bridge. On the surface it’s steel, concrete, and curved elegance connecting Leyte and Samar. Beneath it, the story runs blood-deep — a legend born from Martial Law-era vanity, foreign loans, and whispers that children were sacrificed to make the bridge stand. We’ll trace how gephyrophobia — the terror of crossing bridges — merges with political dread, how the Diwata of the strait became the moral judge of a regime’s excesses, and why this haunted foundation became a national symbol of debt, trauma, and unresolved memory. From hitobashira and global tales of foundation sacrifice to local rituals like padugo, this episode unpacks the myth that turned a transportation artery into a living memorial for the disappeared.
Listen close: the scariest things aren’t always supernatural—they’re the stories we tell about who paid the price for progress.
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