Can houses really cause bad luck?

A home filled with happy memories — this was the dream of Lolo Celestino and Lola Nati when they got married.

They work in the same mining company and the couple were able to build their dream house in San Carlos City, Pangasinan in just six months.

They let the carpenters and construction workers handle the design of their house because according to Lolo Celestino and Lola Nati, all they knew about building a house was the “Oro Plata Mata” superstition.

The superstition counts each step as gold (oro), silver (plata) or death (mata); the step count should never end with mata. 

After the house was built, luck and blessings overflowed. They had three jeepneys, a hog farm, and even a piece of land.

They had three beautiful children, and Lolo Celestino and Lola Nati believed their house was their lucky charm.

Until bad luck struck them.

The Mata

In 2003, their eldest son Armand was stabbed to death. He was a mechanical engineer who had just flown back home from Saudi, and to pay for a lawyer, the couple sold one of their jeeps and their hogs.

Despite the tragedy, Lola Nati acknowledged their good luck: they still had a mango farm in their backyard, which earned them quite enough.

But two weeks later, another unfortunate event happened. Their granddaughter Camille caught dengue, and to pay for the hospital bills, they put in all the money they earned from their mango farm.

Two years later, their 47-year-old daughter Benedicta was diagnosed with cervical cancer. She passed away three months later.

As though burying two of their children wasn’t enough, Lolo Celestino and Lola Nati had to face more misfortunes.

Their main source of income, their mango farm, was destroyed by the storm.

Lolo Celestino and Lola Nati decided to turn the ruined mango farm into a rice field, which helped sustain their everyday lives.

And just when they thought things have started to get better, in February this year, their youngest daughter and their only living child, Celita, succumbed to cancer in the soft tissue.

A priest, who celebrated holy mass for Celita spoke to Lola Nati and advised her to put a white cloth on their stairs while the wake is taking place.

The staircase

According to the priest, it’s their house that brings about the misfortunes, and the staircase, situated in front of a door, is to be blamed.

Their grandchildren Camille and John Robert noticed that while the staircase followed the Oro Plata Mata count and avoided the mata end, it did so by having 13 steps instead. According to Feng Shui, the number 13 is bad luck.

There is also a superstitious belief that says the interior setup of their house causes the luck to leave as quickly as it enters.

They noticed death occurs in their family every 8 years.

Lolo Celestino and Lola Nati said they are willing to do anything to break the curse that's been happening in their family.

The Kapuso Mo Jessica Soho team helped the family fix their staircase with the help of a Feng Shui expert and an architect.

In spite of all the woes in Lolo Celstino and Lola Nati's life, they still chose to stay in their house as it is the only place where they can still keep the memories they have of their late children. — LA, GMA News