THE GHOSTS IN ARLEGUI MANSION

In the course of my long career as a regular ghost story writer ( Ghost Stories & Strange Tales) in the country’s leading weekly magazines (Women’s Journal, Woman Today and Astroscope) , I  discovered for myself  that one good, reliable  source of ghost stories and strange tales are the people who have lived in  Malacanang Palace – the presidential family, their staff,  the security guards and even  their occasional guests.  As somebody said, at day time, the palace is the country’s seat of power but once the lights are turned off at night, it is just another haunted house.

Manuel Quezon, III – grandson of President Quezon – has this interesting observation “ I grew up with these stories, not from family but from old folks who’d worked there and who believed these tales.  Lots of people got spooked in Malacanang Palace.

  It is also rumoured that some of the ghosts you bump into while walking through its dark, silent corridors are returning spirits of presidents ( Presidents Quezon, Roxas, Magsaysay and even Garcia ) playful children, World War II victims, a priest  and even a “kapre” are said to frequent the palace. “

There is this  story I recently stumbled upon in cyberspace. I found this  personal encounter  with the supernatural, by a no less than former President GMA’s presidential assistant, so incredibly creepy and hair raising.  

The chilling tale is my treat for you on this sizzling summer month:

2001, right after the Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Administration assumed office in Malacanang Palace in Manila, a couple of us Information Officers from attached agencies of the former Office of the Press Secretary were detailed to our tour of duty at the palace’s Press office.

Our group comprised of what was then known as the Operations Center and were directly involved in the President’s travel and state visit plans. We were also involved in the President’s Media Interaction  team and the Palace’s News Desk. Suffice it to say, we worked round the clock 24/7. We were provided with food and accommodations so none of us had to go home every day.

Our assigned sleeping quarters was at the” right tower” of the Arlegui Guest House – the same house where Presidents Cory Aquino, Fidel Ramos and Joseph Estrada stayed during their terms as presidents.

Because the office is scheduled to operate 24 hours a day, we worked in shifts. So it is normal to find three or four people working at the staff area during the night shift while the rest (often three or four people or less) are found snoring in the sleeping quarters.

Within the six months that we’ve stayed in the said area, everyone of us had a story to tell and all of them bordered on the creepy. But one night stood out for me and my friend Hazel, who was also our media placement officer.

It was eleven p.m. and we were waiting for the arrival of the night shift people. Hazel was doing the wrap ups on her reports and I was preparing to brush my teeth. Upstairs in the tower, our errand boy, Rey, was already asleep.

There was nothing out of the ordinary until my eyes caught the curtain that lead to the balcony. It was parted, as I someone was standing there and holding the curtains apart with his hands, only no one was there, and there was nothing to hold the curtains open like that.

Like I said- it seemed like nothing if I hadn’t focused on it, I had no idea how long it had been like that, but I knew it shouldn’t be like that because the glass door leading to the balcony was closed.

I felt like my head grew to three times its normal size. Especially when the curtains closed as if suddenly released.  I told Hazel that we should hurry up and go upstairs. Hazel must have sensed I was nervous because he eyes registered concern.

Once we got to the shower, Hazel asked me what it was that bothered me, so I told her. We decided that it would be better to just sleep and let the night shift deal with whatever it was there downstairs.

While we were trying to sleep, I could distinctly hear the muffled sound of a ball softly bouncing on the wooden floor boards of the office below us. I looked at Hazel in the dark to see if she was awake and I saw her staring back at me. I knew then that she could hear the same bouncing sound I was hearing.

Although I wasn’t sleepy, and my mind was highly alert, I closed my eyes and covered my face with my blanket. I do not know how long I stayed that way and don’t recall falling asleep. But suddenly I felt Hazel jumping into my side of the bed and screaming, “They’re here! They’re here!” That jolted me up and I turned to see what the hell was going on.

She was on her side of the bed, wide awake and perfectly still.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

What was I supposed to say? So I lay down again. And since I wasn’t sleepy, I didn’t bother to close my eyes. I focused instead on the sound of Rey’s rhythmic snoring.

And then it happened again. Hazel jumping on my side of the bed and screaming, “ They’re here! They’re here.”

I turned, and there she was – Hazel, her eyes closed, but I could tell she was awake.

I stared at her a little longer just to make sure she wasn’t going crazy (because if she was, then that would ease my mind of my own suspicion that I was going crazy.)

Hazel’s eyes fluttered wide open and she was staring right in front of her. There was no fear in her eyes. Not even confusion. She sat up, looked at me and Rey for a while, before she lay down again.

I turned away and the same thing happened two more times – her suddenly jumping on my side of the bed and screaming, “They’re here! They’re here!”, or at least, I believed it happened that way. But every time I’d turn around to look at her, she’d be on her side of the bed, lying quietly on her side and very much awake. As I believed I was very much awake.

Finally, it was 4 a.m., and both of us were still awake, though very quiet and still. We didn’t talk at all about that whole thing. I told her I had to go down to read through the day’s issues in the morning. She nodded her head and I left her sitting on her side of the bed, still very quiet. And Rey was still snoring on his bed.

Downstairs, only two of the normally four night- shifters reported and they were busy going through the e-mails and online news. I asked them what time they punched in. One of them said he punched in at fifteen after-twelve, while the other guy said he punched in at around quarter before one.

It didn’t seem they noticed anything out of the ordinary and I didn’t bother to ask.

I did what I had to do, and wrote my reports and that day being a Saturday and since it was still early (6:30 A.M.) I decided to go back to the tower to sleep off the remainder of the morning. Rey was already up and fixing his bed, while Hazel was awake and yawning and feeling sleepy. But on my way up, I caught the last part of the story Rey was telling Hazel. According to him, he was awakened several times during the night by my jumping into his bed and screaming, “They’re here! They’re Here!”  But every time he’d look at me, he’d see me on my side of the bed and lying perfectly still, while Hazel is seated on her side of the bed looking at both of us. Rey said it was a very creepy night for him.

After Rey went down for coffee, I told Hazel my side of the story. And I felt it, like there was this solid thing between us. I sensed that Hazel also had her own story to tell. She did.

She said she heard the muffled sound of a ball bouncing on the wooden floor boards and the giggling of two children down at the office. Then she heard people chatting downstairs, around seven or nine of them and how these people suddenly decided to go to the tower. She said she could hear their footsteps going up for what seemed like several minutes but they never seem to reach the landing (one could reach the tower in less than seven seconds) The spiral metal stairs that lead up to it has 12 steps). Then suddenly they were there , walking around the beds and she found herself opening her eyes and realizing that no one was there, except for the three of us.

She insisted that she was wide awake the whole time, and that she never closed her eyes at any point. She said she was too nervous to close her eyes.

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The three of us couldn’t have been imagining or dreaming  the same things at the same time. Were we awake then? There seems to be something more to this ghost story.  Something evil and sinister - and this is what  scares me.