In the Philippines, the role of "Dyesebel" began with the story of a girl born to a mermaid-obsessed Filipino mother. While pregnant, Lucia (Dyesebel's mother) obsessively looked at a collection of mermaid pictures from a calendar, which eventually affected the infant's form when it was born with a fishtail instead of normal human lower extremities. Tino (Dyesebel's father), angered by his child's deformity, wanted to abandon the child, only to be hindered by a bolt of lightning during a typhoon. To avoid the stigma of having a mermaid child, the couple decided to leave their village and relocate where they can raise Dyesebel in secret, hidden from prying eyes. The mermaid, Dyesebel, eventually met other mermaids while spending time by the seashore, and through her sea adventures, she comes into contact with Dyangga, a sea-witch who had the power to transform sea-creatures into humans. Dyesebel fell in love with Fredo (Jaime de la Rosa), a human. But after her secret of being a mermaid was exposed, it prompted Betty (Carol Varga), the jealous former girlfriend of Fredo, to kidnap Dyesebel and place her in a carnival. Dyesebel was later saved by Fredo. Dyangga eventually transformed Dyesebel into a permanent female human with normal lower extremities.