Halloween Feature: News sources' "scary" experiences

CEBU, Philippines – Some news sources shared with The FREEMAN their strange experiences and encounters with mythical creatures that are often regarded as superstitious and part of make believe stories. Hear it from the sources' mouth:

Angry dead at the morgue

Policemen are witnesses to countless tragic and extraordinary events.

But this police officer in this city was not prepared for the strange encounter he had inside a morgue at the Cebu City Medical Center.

Police Officer 3 Geoffrey Gutual, investigator at the Homicide Section of the Cebu City Police Office, said he was new at the Homicide Section when he was tasked to inspect the cadaver of a man brought to the morgue of CCMC. The man was shot dead.

He was with two senior officers who just waited for him outside, as if testing him if he would get frightened inside the morgue which was an enclosed area with no windows or any opening aside from the door.

He just "asked permission" from the dead and started inspecting the body when he felt his head was as if thumped twice by a strong wind.

Gutual was surprised because it seemed to be impossible for the wind to enter the enclosed room, especially that the door was closed at the time.

He did not mind it and continued what he was doing when he noticed a big black cat underneath the bed where the body he was inspecting laid. After his job, he went out of the room while the cat remained in its position looking up at the cadaver.

Horror booth's horrifying story

"The horror booth in Mandaue City started four years ago and since it is now a yearly event it takes a lot of preparations to make the booth and the casts look real," said Mandaue City first lady Sarah Walker-Cortes. "But, not all know that behind the booth per se lies a real terrifying story."

Cortes said they have experienced several hair-raising stories while preparing the Horror Booth but the most terrifying one happened, when during the night it opened, opened, one of the old woman casts blurted, "I-uli ang akong lungon," referring to the coffin that they are using as props.

Immediately they returned the coffin to the funeral and later found out that the owner of the coffin was cremated.

"Lamang Lupa"

A mystery at the house of a friend still haunts Chief Insp. Romeo Santander, chief of the city Intelligence Division of the CCPO.

When he was 22, he and five of his classmates had to take a seven-day rest at the house of another classmate in Tondo, Manila after their training at the Special Action Force. At the back of the house was a formal morgue which he did not know until after his paranormal experience.

It was their last day of stay at the house when a supernatural creature showed itself to Santander, who was sleeping along with his classmates at the bedroom when he was awakened around 1:30 a.m. by feeling of someone raising his legs.

There, he saw in front of him a huge naked man, who he said was a "kapre."

Santander said the untidy creature he saw was black, with dark eyes, semi-blonde hair, and sagging lower lip, short but muscular. It disappeared in a moment.

The following day, he relayed his experience to his classmates who all laughed at him to his surprise.

Santander later learned he was the last person the eerie creature showed itself to. His classmate told him that they became used to the said creature as he always "plays" with the members of the house by taking their blankets or switching the faucet on and off.

Haunted classroom

It was mid-noon of Sunday when Senior Supt. Patrocinio Comendador, chief of the Regional Intelligence Division of the Police Regional Office-7 and his cousin, both of them, then Grade 5 pupils at Sogod Elementary School, out of boredom decided to peep inside a former room of Grade 1 pupils.

They were at the school because his cousin's father, who was a teacher, was fixing his room. While waiting for his uncle to go home, they wandered around the school and passed along the hallway where the "haunted" classroom was located.

Both of them peeped inside the room through a small hole and to their surprise, they saw a boy, who was about in Grade 1, standing on side view looking at the mirror. The boy was wearing a complete uniform with school shoes and brown sling bag that made the two boys' jaws dropped because it was a weekend and there was no class.

Perhaps sensing their presence, the boy, whom they described to be a mestizo, stared at them and without any word, walked down the middle of the room towards them. Just as the boy was only few feet away from them, terrified young Comendador and his cousin scampered away and told their ordeal to his uncle.

House of Ghosts

For Senior Superintendent Melvin Ramon Buenafe, CCPO director, his fear of ghosts was tested when he was 12 after he was sent by his father to their old house in a mountain barangay in Camarines Sur to make copras (dried coconut meat) so he would be able to buy jeans.

That old house was being used as his father's clinic. At first, Buenafe was hesitant because it was the first time that he will stay in that house overnight alone. He already heard stories that the house is haunted by ghosts of many people who died there.

Around one o'clock in the morning, Buenafe, was already sleeping inside the bedroom when he was awakened by a sound of a stick being dragged on the bamboo wall of the whole room as if an invisible kid was doing it. Few seconds later, Buenafe heard an object, like a cover a can of biscuits, rolled from the kitchen to the bedroom where he was sleeping.

The object stopped right beside his bed that really scared him. He summoned all his courage, switched on a flashlight and looked at the door. To his horror, the door was locked so there was no way for the object to pass through it.

All he did was to cover his self with the blanket until he was able to sleep back and woke up in the morning.

Dead father's "spirit" shows up

PO3 Dioscoro Arong of the Lapu-Lapu City Police Office also had a terrifying experience when he was 12 years old.

It was in 1977 when his father died. On the third night of the wake, the young Arong, who was sleeping on the floor, was suddenly awakened from his deep slumber and was greeted by the site of his father sitting on the edge of the bed where he used to sleep when he was still alive.

"I did not know what to react; I was terrified, shocked and cold seeing his 'spirit' which lasted for more than five minutes before it disappears." - /WAB (FREEMAN)