In the next few days, I will be uploading some of my blogs from my Friendster account. Just this morning, I finally got around to deleting my account. I've decided to post my favorite blogs here.
Let's begin with something that I wrote about my "eerie" experiences in Manila. Back in the 90s, my friends and I would go around the Quezon City or Pasig City until the wee hours of the morning because the talents we were managing then had hotel and bar shows. As a result, we have had a lot of out-of-this world experiences. When I came home to Cagayan de Oro, I also had some similar experiences with friends and students. The stories that follow are just some of them.
GHOST STORIES
When I was still a contributing writer for Eternal Woman magazine in Manila, our November issue would always include stories about the paranormal. So, although Halloween has come and gone, I decided to post this and share with you my experiences…
THE WORLD IS A STAGE
Sometime in 1992, my friends and I decided to produce an all-original Filipino musical to showcase the talents of our artists. We came up with a story combining modern and folk customs. We wrote some of the songs after a number of brainstorming sessions.
During one of these sessions, our group decided to stay overnight at a hostel in one of the universities in Quezon City. Everything went well until one of my friends, David, heard a knock on the door. At first, we thought nothing of it because we were still expecting several friends to arrive. But the knocking was so loud - loud enough to make us jump into the beds and huddle like scared little boys and girls! One of us finally found the courage to open the door. We all took a peep at the hallway, but nobody was there. It was totally deserted! We hurriedly locked the door and continued to stick together as we tried to figure out what just happened. A few minutes later, our friends arrived and we told them about the incident. We thought they had played a game on us. But they didn’t. It wasn’t them!
We made sure that the door was locked and the windows were secure. We began brainstorming and continued doing so until the wee hours of the morning. We went home the following day, still wondering about what really happened the night before.
We were practicing in the hallway of one of the university’s buildings. It was raining hard, and since the hallway had an accordion door, it was an open area and the rain slowly drifted into our practice area. The hallway had a staircase on each end, so we decided to go up on one of them and wait for the flood to subside. We took our stereo, our bags and all the other props we had with us. Then one of my friends, Rainel, lost something (I think it was a part of his overnight bag). As he was searching for it, he happened to glance at the opposite staircase. He saw something and he called out our attention. What we saw really scared the heck out of us! On top of the staircase was a lady dressed in a long black gown. She had long black hair and her feet were chained. She was dragging her feet and the sound she made was incredibly creepy. We tried to push away the vision, but the next time we looked, we saw (and heard!) her coming toward us! Without even thinking twice, we grabbed our belongings and rushed out of the building.
We never practiced in that building again, never mind if the rent was cheap!
On performance day, while getting the stage ready, one of the actors lost her slippers, which she put away in one of the dressing room closets. Nobody knew what the slippers looked like, but we looked for it anyway. Then just as we were clearing up the stage for the final run-through, we saw a pair of slippers on centerstage! It had materialized mysteriously, as nobody put it there.
Several other things in the dressing room mysteriously disappeared that evening. Some were found in a different place.
It was around two or three in the morning of February 25, the EDSA Revolution anniversary. We were headed home after a friend’s regular show at a Mandaluyong hotel. Our singer-friend, Erwin, lived in Fairview, so we agreed that he would be dropped off first. There were five of us in the car: Rainel, who was driving; PJ, who was in the front passenger seat; and then Jheng ,Erwin & I, all seated at the back.
Before reaching the overpass between Camps Aguinaldo and Crame, Rainel suddenly started swerving the car. First to the right, then to the left. We asked him why and he said there was a man, obviously drunk and holding a gin bottle, who was trying to cross the street. He pointed the man at us. He was wearing a plain white t-shirt, but I cannot remember anymore if he had on a pair of jeans or brown slacks. Indeed, he was carrying a bottle in his hand. It was obvious that he was drunk because he was like dancing when he walked. There was a taxi beside us, also trying to avoid the man. As we were about to go up the overpass, we passed by the man. Just as we looked at him, he suddenly disappeared. Rainel screeched the car to a halt as we looked back and searched for the man. The taxi beside us also stopped. EDSA was deserted. It was only us, the taxi driver and the two cars on the road! There was definitely no drunk trying to cross the street!
We decided to sleep over at Erwin’s place, since we were all too afraid to go home and drive by EDSA again.
Exactly a week after, while on our way home from Erwin’s stint at the same hotel in Mandaluyong, we decided to play brave angels and pass by an old, deserted house in Little Baguio, San Juan. We had Natz with us, our friend who was extremely sensitive to paranormal beings and occurrences.
The streets in that part of San Juan go up and down, just like the main streets of Baguio. PJ parked the car outside the house’s gate. There was nobody in the big garden, or inside the house. It was completely dark. There was a big tree in the garden, and that was where we focused our attention. We stared at the tree for a few minutes before Natz finally said he felt somebody’s presence. That gave us chills as Jheng, Erwin and I felt the hairs on our neck stand. We told PJ we’ve had enough and that we had to move along.
PJ started the car once, twice, but nothing happened. He tried again…and again…and again…still nothing happened. PJ said it was like something, or somebody, was trying to stop him from starting the car. Suddenly, we saw a pair of headlights heading our way. We told PJ to try again, because we noticed that the car (or the headlights, which was all we actually saw!) was heading straight towards us. But PJ was unsuccessful. I think he said something like, "naninigas paa ko!" We panicked! The car was almost in front of us!
Then, just as the other car was about to collide with us, PJ was able to start the engine. We breathed a sigh of relief and thanked God, then turned to look at the other car as it passed by us. To our surprise, it disappeared! We froze for a few minutes, shouted and then PJ sped off.
We slept at PJ’s house that evening, all of us still in shock. We never took that road again, even in broad daylight!
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY
I came home to Cagayan de Oro in May 1998, and began a fulfilling career as a teacher in a private school in Bugo. In my eight years of serving the school, I’ve had a number of intriguing, mysterious and paranormal experiences. Some experiences involved my co-teachers and the students. But the most horrifying one happened to my friend Ann, my student Christine Baitan, and I…
It happened on a Sunday, sometime in 1999. Ann, Christine, and I, decided to drop by the school after hearing mass and buying ingredients for our dinner. I lived with Ann in a rented house near the school at that time. Anyway, we decided to go because we needed to get some books and papers that had to be worked on.
As we reached the school, we noticed that the big gate was open. We also noticed how dark it was, and that the security guard was nowhere to be found. We went in anyway.
While Ann gathered enough courage to walk through the dark hallway leading to the faculty room, Christine and I called up some friends using the office phone. The phone was usually by the office window so that the guard can easily answer calls even if the office was locked.
Ann was finally able to persuade us to accompany her to the faculty room. We passed by the nursery and Kinder 1 classrooms and walked hurriedly, forming a single line, with Ann in the lead and I, at the back. As we reached the hallway near the Kinder 2 classroom and the flagpole, Ann began to sing the "Our Father." I asked her why she was singing but she didn’t reply. Christine and I joined in the singing.
Then, as I glanced to my left, by the flagpole, I saw a figure moving. It was dressed in a black robe and had no visible face and arms. And what made him (I presumed it was a "him") look even more scary was the fact that he was floating! Add to that the fact that he was headed straight at us! My heart beat faster and I felt tingles all over my body. Our singing became even louder; our steps, quicker. We were almost running! When we reached the faculty room, we hardly spoke a word and quickly took all the books and papers we needed. We left the faculty room and made sure it was locked.
We formed a single line again and started walking fast. I took a glance at the field, but the figure was nowhere to be found. We saw the guard and asked him how long he had been in the field, and he told us he had just arrived. I wanted to scream, but found that I couldn’t. We were unbelievably quiet as we went along the way.
As soon as we were outside the campus, Ann and I asked Christine if she saw what we saw. She did not. She sang along with us because it felt like the right thing to do at that time. We told her what we saw and she gasped in shock.
We walked back to our apartment still scared, but thankful that God saved us and no harm came to us.
Thank God I haven’t had a similar experience in years. Maybe because I’ve grown stronger in my faith and have learned to constantly pray, no matter where I am or what time of day it is. Prayer and faith in God are still the best weapons against any scare - man-made or not.
It is also important that we remember that these souls are lost. There are reasons why they manifest themselves to us. Again, the best resort would be prayers. We need to constantly pray for them, so they may find their way into the light that leads to God’s Kingdom.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
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Saturday, March 13, 2010
Something Old...But Original!
In the next few days, I will be uploading some of my blogs from my Friendster account. Just this morning, I finally got around to deleting my account. I've decided to post my favorite blogs here.
Let's begin with something that I wrote about my "eerie" experiences in Manila. Back in the 90s, my friends and I would go around the Quezon City or Pasig City until the wee hours of the morning because the talents we were managing then had hotel and bar shows. As a result, we have had a lot of out-of-this world experiences. When I came home to Cagayan de Oro, I also had some similar experiences with friends and students. The stories that follow are just some of them.
GHOST STORIES
When I was still a contributing writer for Eternal Woman magazine in Manila, our November issue would always include stories about the paranormal. So, although Halloween has come and gone, I decided to post this and share with you my experiences…
THE WORLD IS A STAGE
Sometime in 1992, my friends and I decided to produce an all-original Filipino musical to showcase the talents of our artists. We came up with a story combining modern and folk customs. We wrote some of the songs after a number of brainstorming sessions.
During one of these sessions, our group decided to stay overnight at a hostel in one of the universities in Quezon City. Everything went well until one of my friends, David, heard a knock on the door. At first, we thought nothing of it because we were still expecting several friends to arrive. But the knocking was so loud - loud enough to make us jump into the beds and huddle like scared little boys and girls! One of us finally found the courage to open the door. We all took a peep at the hallway, but nobody was there. It was totally deserted! We hurriedly locked the door and continued to stick together as we tried to figure out what just happened. A few minutes later, our friends arrived and we told them about the incident. We thought they had played a game on us. But they didn’t. It wasn’t them!
We made sure that the door was locked and the windows were secure. We began brainstorming and continued doing so until the wee hours of the morning. We went home the following day, still wondering about what really happened the night before.
We were practicing in the hallway of one of the university’s buildings. It was raining hard, and since the hallway had an accordion door, it was an open area and the rain slowly drifted into our practice area. The hallway had a staircase on each end, so we decided to go up on one of them and wait for the flood to subside. We took our stereo, our bags and all the other props we had with us. Then one of my friends, Rainel, lost something (I think it was a part of his overnight bag). As he was searching for it, he happened to glance at the opposite staircase. He saw something and he called out our attention. What we saw really scared the heck out of us! On top of the staircase was a lady dressed in a long black gown. She had long black hair and her feet were chained. She was dragging her feet and the sound she made was incredibly creepy. We tried to push away the vision, but the next time we looked, we saw (and heard!) her coming toward us! Without even thinking twice, we grabbed our belongings and rushed out of the building.
We never practiced in that building again, never mind if the rent was cheap!
On performance day, while getting the stage ready, one of the actors lost her slippers, which she put away in one of the dressing room closets. Nobody knew what the slippers looked like, but we looked for it anyway. Then just as we were clearing up the stage for the final run-through, we saw a pair of slippers on centerstage! It had materialized mysteriously, as nobody put it there.
Several other things in the dressing room mysteriously disappeared that evening. Some were found in a different place.
It was around two or three in the morning of February 25, the EDSA Revolution anniversary. We were headed home after a friend’s regular show at a Mandaluyong hotel. Our singer-friend, Erwin, lived in Fairview, so we agreed that he would be dropped off first. There were five of us in the car: Rainel, who was driving; PJ, who was in the front passenger seat; and then Jheng ,Erwin & I, all seated at the back.
Before reaching the overpass between Camps Aguinaldo and Crame, Rainel suddenly started swerving the car. First to the right, then to the left. We asked him why and he said there was a man, obviously drunk and holding a gin bottle, who was trying to cross the street. He pointed the man at us. He was wearing a plain white t-shirt, but I cannot remember anymore if he had on a pair of jeans or brown slacks. Indeed, he was carrying a bottle in his hand. It was obvious that he was drunk because he was like dancing when he walked. There was a taxi beside us, also trying to avoid the man. As we were about to go up the overpass, we passed by the man. Just as we looked at him, he suddenly disappeared. Rainel screeched the car to a halt as we looked back and searched for the man. The taxi beside us also stopped. EDSA was deserted. It was only us, the taxi driver and the two cars on the road! There was definitely no drunk trying to cross the street!
We decided to sleep over at Erwin’s place, since we were all too afraid to go home and drive by EDSA again.
Exactly a week after, while on our way home from Erwin’s stint at the same hotel in Mandaluyong, we decided to play brave angels and pass by an old, deserted house in Little Baguio, San Juan. We had Natz with us, our friend who was extremely sensitive to paranormal beings and occurrences.
The streets in that part of San Juan go up and down, just like the main streets of Baguio. PJ parked the car outside the house’s gate. There was nobody in the big garden, or inside the house. It was completely dark. There was a big tree in the garden, and that was where we focused our attention. We stared at the tree for a few minutes before Natz finally said he felt somebody’s presence. That gave us chills as Jheng, Erwin and I felt the hairs on our neck stand. We told PJ we’ve had enough and that we had to move along.
PJ started the car once, twice, but nothing happened. He tried again…and again…and again…still nothing happened. PJ said it was like something, or somebody, was trying to stop him from starting the car. Suddenly, we saw a pair of headlights heading our way. We told PJ to try again, because we noticed that the car (or the headlights, which was all we actually saw!) was heading straight towards us. But PJ was unsuccessful. I think he said something like, "naninigas paa ko!" We panicked! The car was almost in front of us!
Then, just as the other car was about to collide with us, PJ was able to start the engine. We breathed a sigh of relief and thanked God, then turned to look at the other car as it passed by us. To our surprise, it disappeared! We froze for a few minutes, shouted and then PJ sped off.
We slept at PJ’s house that evening, all of us still in shock. We never took that road again, even in broad daylight!
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY
I came home to Cagayan de Oro in May 1998, and began a fulfilling career as a teacher in a private school in Bugo. In my eight years of serving the school, I’ve had a number of intriguing, mysterious and paranormal experiences. Some experiences involved my co-teachers and the students. But the most horrifying one happened to my friend Ann, my student Christine Baitan, and I…
It happened on a Sunday, sometime in 1999. Ann, Christine, and I, decided to drop by the school after hearing mass and buying ingredients for our dinner. I lived with Ann in a rented house near the school at that time. Anyway, we decided to go because we needed to get some books and papers that had to be worked on.
As we reached the school, we noticed that the big gate was open. We also noticed how dark it was, and that the security guard was nowhere to be found. We went in anyway.
While Ann gathered enough courage to walk through the dark hallway leading to the faculty room, Christine and I called up some friends using the office phone. The phone was usually by the office window so that the guard can easily answer calls even if the office was locked.
Ann was finally able to persuade us to accompany her to the faculty room. We passed by the nursery and Kinder 1 classrooms and walked hurriedly, forming a single line, with Ann in the lead and I, at the back. As we reached the hallway near the Kinder 2 classroom and the flagpole, Ann began to sing the "Our Father." I asked her why she was singing but she didn’t reply. Christine and I joined in the singing.
Then, as I glanced to my left, by the flagpole, I saw a figure moving. It was dressed in a black robe and had no visible face and arms. And what made him (I presumed it was a "him") look even more scary was the fact that he was floating! Add to that the fact that he was headed straight at us! My heart beat faster and I felt tingles all over my body. Our singing became even louder; our steps, quicker. We were almost running! When we reached the faculty room, we hardly spoke a word and quickly took all the books and papers we needed. We left the faculty room and made sure it was locked.
We formed a single line again and started walking fast. I took a glance at the field, but the figure was nowhere to be found. We saw the guard and asked him how long he had been in the field, and he told us he had just arrived. I wanted to scream, but found that I couldn’t. We were unbelievably quiet as we went along the way.
As soon as we were outside the campus, Ann and I asked Christine if she saw what we saw. She did not. She sang along with us because it felt like the right thing to do at that time. We told her what we saw and she gasped in shock.
We walked back to our apartment still scared, but thankful that God saved us and no harm came to us.
Thank God I haven’t had a similar experience in years. Maybe because I’ve grown stronger in my faith and have learned to constantly pray, no matter where I am or what time of day it is. Prayer and faith in God are still the best weapons against any scare - man-made or not.
It is also important that we remember that these souls are lost. There are reasons why they manifest themselves to us. Again, the best resort would be prayers. We need to constantly pray for them, so they may find their way into the light that leads to God’s Kingdom.
Let's begin with something that I wrote about my "eerie" experiences in Manila. Back in the 90s, my friends and I would go around the Quezon City or Pasig City until the wee hours of the morning because the talents we were managing then had hotel and bar shows. As a result, we have had a lot of out-of-this world experiences. When I came home to Cagayan de Oro, I also had some similar experiences with friends and students. The stories that follow are just some of them.
GHOST STORIES
When I was still a contributing writer for Eternal Woman magazine in Manila, our November issue would always include stories about the paranormal. So, although Halloween has come and gone, I decided to post this and share with you my experiences…
THE WORLD IS A STAGE
Sometime in 1992, my friends and I decided to produce an all-original Filipino musical to showcase the talents of our artists. We came up with a story combining modern and folk customs. We wrote some of the songs after a number of brainstorming sessions.
During one of these sessions, our group decided to stay overnight at a hostel in one of the universities in Quezon City. Everything went well until one of my friends, David, heard a knock on the door. At first, we thought nothing of it because we were still expecting several friends to arrive. But the knocking was so loud - loud enough to make us jump into the beds and huddle like scared little boys and girls! One of us finally found the courage to open the door. We all took a peep at the hallway, but nobody was there. It was totally deserted! We hurriedly locked the door and continued to stick together as we tried to figure out what just happened. A few minutes later, our friends arrived and we told them about the incident. We thought they had played a game on us. But they didn’t. It wasn’t them!
We made sure that the door was locked and the windows were secure. We began brainstorming and continued doing so until the wee hours of the morning. We went home the following day, still wondering about what really happened the night before.
We were practicing in the hallway of one of the university’s buildings. It was raining hard, and since the hallway had an accordion door, it was an open area and the rain slowly drifted into our practice area. The hallway had a staircase on each end, so we decided to go up on one of them and wait for the flood to subside. We took our stereo, our bags and all the other props we had with us. Then one of my friends, Rainel, lost something (I think it was a part of his overnight bag). As he was searching for it, he happened to glance at the opposite staircase. He saw something and he called out our attention. What we saw really scared the heck out of us! On top of the staircase was a lady dressed in a long black gown. She had long black hair and her feet were chained. She was dragging her feet and the sound she made was incredibly creepy. We tried to push away the vision, but the next time we looked, we saw (and heard!) her coming toward us! Without even thinking twice, we grabbed our belongings and rushed out of the building.
We never practiced in that building again, never mind if the rent was cheap!
On performance day, while getting the stage ready, one of the actors lost her slippers, which she put away in one of the dressing room closets. Nobody knew what the slippers looked like, but we looked for it anyway. Then just as we were clearing up the stage for the final run-through, we saw a pair of slippers on centerstage! It had materialized mysteriously, as nobody put it there.
Several other things in the dressing room mysteriously disappeared that evening. Some were found in a different place.
It was around two or three in the morning of February 25, the EDSA Revolution anniversary. We were headed home after a friend’s regular show at a Mandaluyong hotel. Our singer-friend, Erwin, lived in Fairview, so we agreed that he would be dropped off first. There were five of us in the car: Rainel, who was driving; PJ, who was in the front passenger seat; and then Jheng ,Erwin & I, all seated at the back.
Before reaching the overpass between Camps Aguinaldo and Crame, Rainel suddenly started swerving the car. First to the right, then to the left. We asked him why and he said there was a man, obviously drunk and holding a gin bottle, who was trying to cross the street. He pointed the man at us. He was wearing a plain white t-shirt, but I cannot remember anymore if he had on a pair of jeans or brown slacks. Indeed, he was carrying a bottle in his hand. It was obvious that he was drunk because he was like dancing when he walked. There was a taxi beside us, also trying to avoid the man. As we were about to go up the overpass, we passed by the man. Just as we looked at him, he suddenly disappeared. Rainel screeched the car to a halt as we looked back and searched for the man. The taxi beside us also stopped. EDSA was deserted. It was only us, the taxi driver and the two cars on the road! There was definitely no drunk trying to cross the street!
We decided to sleep over at Erwin’s place, since we were all too afraid to go home and drive by EDSA again.
Exactly a week after, while on our way home from Erwin’s stint at the same hotel in Mandaluyong, we decided to play brave angels and pass by an old, deserted house in Little Baguio, San Juan. We had Natz with us, our friend who was extremely sensitive to paranormal beings and occurrences.
The streets in that part of San Juan go up and down, just like the main streets of Baguio. PJ parked the car outside the house’s gate. There was nobody in the big garden, or inside the house. It was completely dark. There was a big tree in the garden, and that was where we focused our attention. We stared at the tree for a few minutes before Natz finally said he felt somebody’s presence. That gave us chills as Jheng, Erwin and I felt the hairs on our neck stand. We told PJ we’ve had enough and that we had to move along.
PJ started the car once, twice, but nothing happened. He tried again…and again…and again…still nothing happened. PJ said it was like something, or somebody, was trying to stop him from starting the car. Suddenly, we saw a pair of headlights heading our way. We told PJ to try again, because we noticed that the car (or the headlights, which was all we actually saw!) was heading straight towards us. But PJ was unsuccessful. I think he said something like, "naninigas paa ko!" We panicked! The car was almost in front of us!
Then, just as the other car was about to collide with us, PJ was able to start the engine. We breathed a sigh of relief and thanked God, then turned to look at the other car as it passed by us. To our surprise, it disappeared! We froze for a few minutes, shouted and then PJ sped off.
We slept at PJ’s house that evening, all of us still in shock. We never took that road again, even in broad daylight!
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY
I came home to Cagayan de Oro in May 1998, and began a fulfilling career as a teacher in a private school in Bugo. In my eight years of serving the school, I’ve had a number of intriguing, mysterious and paranormal experiences. Some experiences involved my co-teachers and the students. But the most horrifying one happened to my friend Ann, my student Christine Baitan, and I…
It happened on a Sunday, sometime in 1999. Ann, Christine, and I, decided to drop by the school after hearing mass and buying ingredients for our dinner. I lived with Ann in a rented house near the school at that time. Anyway, we decided to go because we needed to get some books and papers that had to be worked on.
As we reached the school, we noticed that the big gate was open. We also noticed how dark it was, and that the security guard was nowhere to be found. We went in anyway.
While Ann gathered enough courage to walk through the dark hallway leading to the faculty room, Christine and I called up some friends using the office phone. The phone was usually by the office window so that the guard can easily answer calls even if the office was locked.
Ann was finally able to persuade us to accompany her to the faculty room. We passed by the nursery and Kinder 1 classrooms and walked hurriedly, forming a single line, with Ann in the lead and I, at the back. As we reached the hallway near the Kinder 2 classroom and the flagpole, Ann began to sing the "Our Father." I asked her why she was singing but she didn’t reply. Christine and I joined in the singing.
Then, as I glanced to my left, by the flagpole, I saw a figure moving. It was dressed in a black robe and had no visible face and arms. And what made him (I presumed it was a "him") look even more scary was the fact that he was floating! Add to that the fact that he was headed straight at us! My heart beat faster and I felt tingles all over my body. Our singing became even louder; our steps, quicker. We were almost running! When we reached the faculty room, we hardly spoke a word and quickly took all the books and papers we needed. We left the faculty room and made sure it was locked.
We formed a single line again and started walking fast. I took a glance at the field, but the figure was nowhere to be found. We saw the guard and asked him how long he had been in the field, and he told us he had just arrived. I wanted to scream, but found that I couldn’t. We were unbelievably quiet as we went along the way.
As soon as we were outside the campus, Ann and I asked Christine if she saw what we saw. She did not. She sang along with us because it felt like the right thing to do at that time. We told her what we saw and she gasped in shock.
We walked back to our apartment still scared, but thankful that God saved us and no harm came to us.
Thank God I haven’t had a similar experience in years. Maybe because I’ve grown stronger in my faith and have learned to constantly pray, no matter where I am or what time of day it is. Prayer and faith in God are still the best weapons against any scare - man-made or not.
It is also important that we remember that these souls are lost. There are reasons why they manifest themselves to us. Again, the best resort would be prayers. We need to constantly pray for them, so they may find their way into the light that leads to God’s Kingdom.
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