Tales of Pampanga

It's back! Midnight Stories will be posted throughout October to celebrate the month of ghosties and ghoulies and things that go bump in the night. Here's our next installment. Enjoy!

The house in Prado Siongco that is believed to be haunted. Photo: Ruston Banal

Not human

It's been more than five years since this house with sawali walls in Prado Siongco, Lubao was inhabited by real people. Today, neighbors believe that it is inhabited by spirits.

Its most recent tenants didn't last long. According to Cedric Evangelista, whose house is just few meters away, they would experience frightening, unexplained incidents at midnight.

"One family member said he felt his legs being pulled down while he was asleep by very rough hands that he thought were coming out from under the bed," Evangelista said.

"[These incidents] happened to all the family members and led to them eventually leaving the place. They also frequently heard a terrifying voice coming from the ceiling, moaning gibberish at any time of the day."

According to Jun Ocampo, the grandson of the owner (who no longer stays in the place), the house was built using materials culled from demolished houses. Each part has an unknown provenance. This, he believes, could be the reason for the unexplainable phenomena.

"A lot of the people nearby have their own horrifying experience about the house," Ocampo said.

"One time one of the neighbors heard the sound of water coming from the house. He looked out his window and saw that the house's bathroom lights were on. But the house no longer had electricity and water as by that time it had already been abandoned for several years."

One midnight, the neighbors were alarmed when they heard a voice shouting outside. It was the local balut vendor. "When we came close to the balut vendor, we saw he was crying. Nanginginig ang boses niya and his whole body was shaking. He was pointing at the house. When he calmed down, his story terrified all the people who were there," said Evangelista.

According to the balut vendor, as he passed by the house, a person standing on the terrace called to him. Although hesitant, as there were no lights in the area, he came near the person, walking on the dried leaves and twigs that covered the ground as a result of the house being uninhabited for years. As he got nearer, the person turned slowly—revealing unearthly features, and growing bigger and bigger.

"It wasn't human!" This is what Evangelista remembers came out of the balut vendor's mouth. The man has avoided the area since then.

The house's owner also said that they would always see bits of damp hair in the sink every time they visited the house for a clean-up. One time, one of his friends asked why the house's sink was so huge. The owner eventually found out that the secondhand shop they bought it from had taken the sink from a hospital that had undergone renovation.

It turns out that the sink was the one used in the hospital's morgue. It was huge because it had been used to wash dead people.

Who's haunting the kitchen?

Some years ago, news broke of the death of a chef in a resort in Angeles City. Her death was ruled a suicide by the police, but her family believed that she had been murdered.

According to Bert, one of the resort's employees, her presence is still in the area, as there have been sightings of a woman resembling her when her death anniversary draws near.

"New employees would come to me and tell that a woman talked to them and gave them instructions on their day's task. But when I asked for the name of this woman, they could not remember it," said Bert.

"At first I ignored it as I thought it was just a random incident. But when this occurred several times among new employees, I began to have goosebumps." While Bert was telling this story, this writer could actually see the hairs on his body stand. 

"When we asked the employees to describe the woman, she exactly resembles the employee who died years ago, " Bert said.

He added that one time job applicants told him they had been interviewed by the chef. However, there was no chef on duty that day. When he asked then who the interviewer was, they gave him a name—the same first name of the dead woman.

"We noticed that when her death anniversary comes closer, that is when we  experience weird things like these," said Bert. "And it has become a regular occurrence."

The kutsero

The eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 affected the entire world, and wrought havoc on the nearby countryside.

In Pampanga, the most affected municipality was Bacolor, where many townsfolk are believed to have died, buried in the sudden rampage of lahars reaching 20 feet high.

The eruption turned it into a ghost town for several years, with people moving to other towns and provinces, starting new lives. It was only in recent years that the original dwellers have begun to re-populate the area, rebuilding new homes and communities. But during the time the lahars turned the town into a dystopian landscape, stories of strange activities began to pop up. One story is narrated by Topey.

Topey is a jeepney driver whose route goes down the old MacArthur road by Don Bosco. Even before Pinatubo's eruption, there were already stories of a white lady appearing in the area during midnight. Drivers would look in the rear-view mirror and see her, seated with the remaining passengers.

Topey, who is quite aware of this urban legend, was having a bad day. He decided to go home without picking up any passengers along the way.

"I was in front of the Mary the Queen College when suddenly my jeepney stopped," he said. "It was around 10 p.m., but there wasn't any other vehicle passing though. The lights were also out, except for a single lamp post illuminating the school's waiting area."

Topey checked his engine and found out the water had drained from the radiator. He had no water on him, so he waited on the road for another vehicle to pass by.

After several minutes, he heard the sound of horseshoes and saw a kalesa coming down the street.

In Bacolor and nearby San Fernando, kalesas are common spectacles, with more than a hundred of them still being used. But this was no ordinary kalesa.

As the kalesa drew near, Topey asked the kutsero if he had any water. But Topey did not get a reply. The kalesa continued to move toward him, and then he saw it.

The kutsero had no head.

Topey reared back, trembling, then turned around and ran in the opposite direction, shouting for help.

The next morning, accompanied by his brother, Topey returned to the spot to retrieve his jeepney. When he checked on the engine, he discovered that the radiator was now full of water. — BM, GMA News