Malacañang Palace

Malacañang Palace is the home of the President of Republic of the Philippines, the symbol of the nation, and also his/her official office. It is located at 1000 José P. Laurel Street, San Miguel, Manila. The house was built in 1750 in Spanish Colonial style. In Spanish Era, it is also the home of Governor-General of the Philippines. It was purchased from a Spanish Aristocrat named Don Luis Rocha, and was purchased by a Spanish Colonel and again purchased by the state, thus became the home of the representatives of Spain in the Philippines.

Yes! It is true. The building was built since the Spanish time. So, it might be true that there is an unknown entity there. Then, what are they?

Male and female figures disappearing into walls. Pianos playing by themselves in the dead of night.

Empty chairs turning, heavy curtains parting, plates vanishing from where you put them. --- Philippine Daily Inquirer

Pres. Noynoy Aquino once said,

No one wants to live in Malacañang proper, because of the eerie environment.

Actually, he prefer to live in the other side of Pasig River - on Bahay Pangarap.

I don?t like the ambience of Malacañang Palace. There's this big balete tree in front [of the state entrance] ... And the guards say sometimes, the pianos start playing by themselves and someone is [heard] marching [down the hall].

Story

[Taken from a News Website:]

Strange things The strongman's son, Senator Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr., narrated tales of ghostly goings-on during the family's 20-year stay in the Spanish-era Palace. There's no doubt about it, many strange things are really happening there, the senator told the Inquirer. Everybody who lived in the Palace, during and after [our stay], including the security and the staff?everybody has experienced something, he said. Eduardo Rozon, chief steward during the Marcos regime, and Bernardo Barcena Jr., a guard posted at the door to the private quarters of the then first family, vividly recall both frightening and hilarious encounters with the unknown in Malacañang. From their stories recounted to the Inquirer last week, it appeared that ghosts haunted not only the numerous state rooms but also the Marcoses? private quarters, and even the adjoining building known as Kalayaan Hall. The chandeliers clanked, the plates in the china room tinkled, and staff members felt their hair rising. The ghostly occurrences always happened in the wee hours?between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m., when the Palace was quiet and deserted, according to both Bongbong Marcos and Barcena. During that witching hour, it was common for the staff to see figures appear at the Reception Hall, the massive corridor framed by pictures of all Philippine presidents, and the Ceremonial Hall, the biggest room in the Palace where the most important state functions are held and which served as balcony during the Spanish and American eras. Never their faces You just see them. You think they're your colleagues but they're not. And they always had their backs to us; we never saw their faces, said Barcena, who is now on his second term as barangay councilman in Bagong Nayon in Antipolo City, the housing project awarded by the Marcoses to their household staff. Barcena once walked up to who he thought was a colleague leaning on a panel in the Ceremonial Hall: I was just a few meters from him when he vanished. Frightened, Barcena hurried to tell his colleagues about the experience. Rozon, who supervised the Palace waiters, recalled one night when he was at the Reception Hall and noticed that the door to the Music Room was ajar. (A bedroom during the Spanish time, the Music Room has since been used by first ladies as a sitting room for important state guests.) Rozon said he wondered to his companion what would happen if the half-open door would suddenly close. Then the door did close! We ran downstairs! he said, laughing. Barcena swore that in the same room with no one else around, they heard the piano play and saw the first lady's chair turn by itself. Intrigued by the stories, Bongbong Marcos and his friends decided to go ghost hunting in the courtyard of the private quarters, which had a fountain in the middle. Knock, knock A friend reached for a doorknob, but the door opened before he could touch it. They scrambled upstairs, the senator recalled with a chuckle. It was also common for the family members to hear someone knocking on their doors, always at around 2 a.m. During the renovation of the Palace, Bongbong Marcos said, he used a room adjacent to the State Dining Room as his temporary quarters. (The State Dining Room, originally a ballroom during the Spanish and American times, has three Commonwealth-era chandeliers and 40 carved chairs around a long dining table. It is now where Cabinet meetings are held. Its large French mirrors were installed in 1877, according to the book Malacañan Palace, The Official Illustrated History.) Knocking awakened Bongbong Marcos one night, and when he opened his door, he saw no one there. Suddenly, one of the antique chairs stacked leaning against the dining table righted itself! I couldn't sleep anymore that night, he said. The ghosts also apparently liked telephones. The senator said his mother Imelda had been roused from sleep by the ringing of the phone in her bedroom, also during the wee hours. The next morning she would ask who called her at that time, and of course nobody did, he said. Rozon said the ringing phones even sparked quarrels among the guards, each suspecting his colleagues of pulling a prank. Seeing things It was President Marcos who reportedly kept seeing people who were not actually there. Coming home from school once, Bongbong Marcos and his two sisters were told by their father about an experience the previous night in the President?s Study, which once served as Quezon's bedroom. A household aide walked into his office past midnight, and Marcos ordered him to fetch something. When the aide did not return, Marcos asked the guard where he had gone. Sir, there is no one here, the guard said. Rozon told another version of that story of Marcos wondering why a household aide was still in his study well past midnight. He peered through his glasses to look closely at the aide, who disappeared into the wall, Rozon said. Bongbong Marcos said his sister Imee had also seen Quezon's ghost in one of the state rooms. Undersecretary Manolo Quezon of the Malacañang communications group recalled a story of how his grandfather's ghost paced the Palace during times of crisis. (But ?no one I have met, or heard this story from, ever described him as menacing, or cursing, the grandson said.) He said it was supposedly one of the reasons the Marcoses had the Palace reconstructed in 1979, doubling its original size. Another story from the current staff in the Palace is they sometimes see the lights on late at night in the Quezon Room (now the Executive Office) in Kalayaan Hall, he said. The ghosts may be the lost souls of people slain during World War II, Bongbong Marcos said, adding that the Japanese Army used Malacañang as headquarters and that people were killed in some of the rooms there. Father Brown et al. One person believed killed by Japanese troops was an American priest whose ghost has since haunted the Palace as ?Father Brown? and who, Bongbong Marcos said, was wont to wake dozing Palace guards with a variety of tricks. Then there is a Chinese manservant who has appeared to Palace staff and guests. Bongbong Marcos said a guest from Italy recounted being awakened by a Chinese servant at around 3 a.m. and told to attend Mass with the Marcoses. The first family asked around and was told that the ghost had been known to appear as early as the time of President Manuel Roxas. The ghosts are apparently a mischievous lot. Said Elmer Navarro, whose father Federico, now deceased, was a household aide during the Marcos years: The ghosts played tricks on him. When he put down the plates and turned away, they would be gone when he looked again. Then he would find the plates elsewhere. Barcena said he and his colleagues reported their experiences to their superiors, and were told, with a shrug: Those are house guests. Mr. Brown The most popular of the Palace ?guests? is the benevolent kapre said to inhabit the balete tree that makes President Aquino uncomfortable. Rozon, now 69, said the kapre had been known as Mr. Brown (perhaps confused with Father Brown) since Quezon?s time, but that some staff members also referred to him as Mr. Jones. Mr. Brown was not bad. He didn't harm people, Rozon said. The story goes that household aide Mariano Dacuso, now deceased, was relaxing and reading the papers in the Tea House (where a mosque now stands) when he found himself being lifted along with his chair. He was lifted almost to the ceiling so he told the kapre, Please put me down. Then he ran to us, Rozon said. Then there was a cabbie who got the scare of his life when he asked for a light and looked up to see the kapre chomping on a cigar. Shaking in fear, the cabbie ran to the quarters of the servants, who told him he had found Mr. Brown. Rozon also said that when the social secretary's staff worked overtime typing letters, they would hear someone else typing in the next room, which was empty. Whenever something mysterious happened, it was always blamed on Mr. Brown, he said. Elmer Navarro, who lived in the old servants? quarters as a child, said the kapre was feared even by the military. Sometimes, he recalled, ?you could see smoke wafting from the tree.? Bunye's story Ignacio 'Toting' Bunye, now a member of the Monetary Board, has his own story to tell: From Day One of my assumption as press secretary in 2002, I have been warned about creepy happenings in ... Malacañang. Not being the superstitious type, I readily dismissed such stories. But it is not uncommon to hear about various offices being blessed every now and then, supposedly to ward off any unwanted unearthly visitors. One senior official even had the windows and doors of his office plastered with small medallions of the Blessed Virgin as added insurance. And then it happened! One night after a late dinner at the Ceremonial Hall, I passed by my office to pick up some stuff before going home. It must have been past 9 [p.m.]. My office, at that time, was ... what used to be [Marcos?] bedroom. To reach it from the Ceremonial Hall, one passes through a series of doors and hallways, starting with the Music Room, then through the Ramos Room, another connecting room, and finally the Marcos bedroom. As I walked to my office, I had a funny feeling that somebody or something was following me. I could feel my hair rising and my heart ... [pounding] faster. In the still of the evening, the footsteps on the wooden floor were very audible. As soon as I reached my office, I locked the door behind me (as if it would have mattered). The Thing Bunye said the footsteps slowly but progressively moved closer. He continued: Then I heard the doorknob turn and I felt the slight push on the door. After a while the footsteps started to move away, but seemingly in circles. What I have heard is now happening to me! I quickly said three Our Fathers, three Hail Marys and three Glory Be's. Somehow, I felt emboldened and I decided to leave in a hurry. I told myself: Mr. Ghost, you can scare me but you cannot hurt me! My first view of The Thing from a distance was of a white-haired man wearing a dark suit. The Thing must have sensed my presence because he immediately turned around. He said: Toting, paano ba lumabas dito (How do you get out of here)? Secretary Raul Gonzalez seemed as relieved as I was. The then newly appointed justice secretary had followed me through the secret door and somehow had gotten lost in the Palace labyrinth. The two men later learned it was Gonzalez?s footsteps, and not those of a ghost, that Bunye had heard. Real or imagined, ghosts have the run of Malacañang, making it truly a place not for the faint-hearted.

Sources:
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20101031-300680/Mr-Brown-lives-in-RPs-most-haunted-house-Palace
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malacañan_Palace

Ferdinand Marcos

Ferdinand Marcos, the 10th president, for me, is a lifetime famous influencial politician not only in the Philippines but, perhaps, all over the world. Influencial in a sense that he opened the minds of Filipinos for another unity (well the first was against Spaniards), which also began the protest of other countries against their own dictator or the like. Being a dictator for almost 21 years (1965 - 1986), he became the most powerful in the country. His wife, Imelda Romualdez-Marcos, became as well an influencial first lady, known with her hundreds of pairs of shoes and sandals collection.

However we're not focusing on his own life as a leader, but we're going to talk about urban legends connected to him.

There was this legend that still persists in Ilocos Norte:
- That Marcos is alive.
- That he is kept living by embryonic fluid in some secret facility.
- That his skin is nice and fresh and that he walks among us but does not look at all like the original Marcos.
- That the "corpse" in Paoay is really just wax.
- That his gold certificates are still being encashed, etc., etc.

Ferdinand Marcos is ALIVE?!

It was rumored that Ferdinand Marcos was still ALIVE. It was very outrageous! His devotees were making stories hoping that the dictator is still alive till now.

The wedding depicted here is unknown. I don't know who the persons here were.

---

[Taken from E-mail:]

A Woman in her forties was invited to stand as principal sponsor in a wedding to be held in one of the big churches in Manila. The bride and groom had told her not to be shocked when she sees one of thier special guests, who was supposedly a long lost kumpadre. So she went to the wedding and there she saw the man, walking very oh so slowly along the aisle. She thought then that if the man were really alive, she'd at least expect him to be confined to a wheelchair, either because of old age or his reported illnesses or both. But the man was walking all by himself, albeit a cane and some bodyguards surrounding him. Then came the signing of the marriage contract, and the woman had thought of checking if the man and his famous signature would match. They did. She later learned that his being alive is top secret, and is known only among the man's followers. The man is none other than Ferdinand Edralin Marcos.

Ferdinand Marcos is made of WAX?!

The corpse of the once powerful dictator now lies inside a refrigerated glass coffin in a mausoleum, wearing a barong tagalog and black slacks. He will remain there unless the government will sponsor a burial with military honor.

Anyway, in Filipino burial tradition, a corpse must not wear shoes, however previous Pres. Ferdinand Marcos wear black shoes, as if, its covering something. His whole body look like not a real biological body but a body made of WAX.

It was not true. His family claims that the corpse looks waxy because it has to be waxed periodically for preservation.

Sources:

http://spoonlagoon.blogspot.com/2008/10/pinoy-urban-legends-20.html
http://lisawallerrogers.wordpress.com/2009/03/11/ferdinand-marcos-restless-corpse/
http://ph.news.yahoo.com/philippine-urban-legends-093005285.html

The ghost of the Manila Film Center

This is not really a legend since it actually happened. But the story about the haunting is the legend.

About

The Manila Film Center is an abandoned auditorium by Manila Bay in the Cultural Center complex. A Korean company is currently making efforts rehabilitating the image of the center with a transvestite Las Vegas-like act. Now housing the "Amazing Philippine Theatre," the massive building is patronized nightly by dozens of Korean honeymooners who pose in front of the kitschy Egyptian Pharoah figure above the doorway before entering to enjoy the performance by the "country's prettiest gays." Most of the couples are completely unaware of its ghostly reputation, if one doesn't consider Filipino males with long hairless legs as apparitions.

It is haunted by the ghosts of angry construction workers. People hear cries and moans, see apparitions as well as bleeding walls and arms sticking out from under doors.

It was told that Imelda Marcos had the grandiose notion of turning the Philippines into the Cannes of Asia by starting an international film festival. They decided the venue to be held beside the Cultural Center of the Philippines and had a date set for January 18, 1982.

Despite the downhill trend of the Philippine economy, Imelda plodded along with her grandiose schemes. She also ignored some bad omens. When she first decided to launch her International Film Festival, she had built a huge building that was designed on the lines of the Parthenon.

Unfortunately, it appears that both Ferdinand Marcos and his wife, Imelda, began to change the building plans while the structure was being built, forcing construction delays. As a result, the center was being completed as quickly as possible in time for its inaugural film festival.

On November 18, 1981, shortly before 3:00 a.m., scaffolding and wooden support gave way while cement was being leveled on the sixth floor of the half-finished Manila Film Center, killing 26 construction workers and injuring 36 others. However, according to the Marcos-controlled press, 28 workers were killed in the accident, and some says 15 only. Rumor had it than 168 had died.

Betty Benitez (wife of Imelda’s Assistant Minister, Conrado Benitez), who was in charge of the project for the First Lady, was called to the scene. The mothers and wives of the men who died had come to claim the bodies. But the building was due to open for the festival, therefore it was said that instead halting the project for a rescue attempt and digging out the workers, Betty ordered, “Pour the cement.”, thus, the bodies and some of the still alive people were burried on the spot in a rush to finish the building for Imelda Marcos' film festival and the Miss Universe pageant.

A few months later Betty Benitez was herself killed in bizarre accident. She was a passenger in a car driven by O. D. Corpus, a former president of the University of the Philippines. They were on their way to Tagaytay at night. (It was never made clear why they were out driving in the middle of the night away from their respective spouses and families.) Betty was killed instantly when the car ran off the road on a curve and smashed into a tree. Corpus survived.

Manilans soon said the film festival building was haunted, and many refused to work there or go inside to see films. Imee Marcos called in a medium, who was said to be able to communicate with the dead, and brought him to the film festival building. The medium went into a trance. Normally, he spoke only in his native dialect. But in the trance, he suddenly spoke on in English: ‘Now there are 169,’ he intoned. ‘Betty is with us.’

In a 2005 documentary produced by GMA Network Channel 7: i-Witness, all 169 workers were traced and the records show that not more than a dozen died. Furthermore all the bodies were retrieved and were given a proper burial.

Legend

Of course with a tragedy like this, there are going to be restless souls attached to the building and some of these ghosts have been spooking guests of nearby buildings.

In one story, a stranger approached a passer-by, who gives him a calling card and asked him to telephone his family and tell them that he was all right, and that he would be leaving soon. When the passer-by made the call, a startled voice explained that her husband was dead -- his body was one of those encased in the film center.

Source:
- Beth Day Romulo, Inside the Palace: The Rise and Fall of Ferdinand & Imelda Marcos. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1987: 167-68.
http://blogs.gmanews.tv/sidetrip/blog/archives/42-The-Manila-Film-Center-mystery-A-ghostly-place-or-an-urban-legend.html
http://asiaparanormal.blogspot.com/2009/12/haunting-in-manila-film-center.html

The San Juanico Bridge has a bloody foundation

Legend

[Taken from Internet (PinoyExchange.com):]

"Imelda Marcos was in charge of building the bridge. She consulted a manghuhula who said that the bridge would never be finished unless the blood of children [would be spilled on the foundation]. So Imelda ordered [street children to be kidnapped] and [their throats were] slit on the bridge's location. Their bodies were thrown into the river. A mermaid or diwata who resided in the river saw the plight of the children and was saddened by it. She cursed Imelda. So the First Lady grew scales on her legs and she smelled fishy. That was why she wore long skirts and bathed as often as possible."

Variations

- It was also said that instead just spread the blood on the bridge, the blood itself was mixed to cement by the construction workers.
- Much scary version is, the bodies of the children are dropped to the cement mixer.

About

The San Juanico Bridge, renamed from Marcus Bridge, was the longest bridge in the Philippines. According to some rumors, it has foundation allegedly been made stronger by the blood of numerous street children (some say babies). When it was under construction, there happened coincidentally a kidnapping in Samar-Leyte areas. Thus, they theorized that the kids were offered to a pagan or demonic ritual to guarantee the strength of the structure. Imelda Marcos, being in charge with the building, was said to be the master mind of the said events.

This is why, people say, the bridge is haunted by many lost spirits. Others say that the success of the bloody rituals done for San Juanico Bridge encouraged others to do the same for their bridges and buildings. Only one detail was constant: the use of street kids as sacrifice.

Sources:

http://www.spot.ph/newsfeatures/41192/urban-legends-that-drove-pinoys-crazy

The True Bongbong Marcos is already dead

The Story Behind the Rumor:

In early 1980’s, political grapevines were filled with out of this earth gossips, rumors and nuances. And one of these was that Bongbong Marcos was already dead. And the Bongbong who was seen in public during those days was a clone, a fake and a product of plastic surgery.

How the rumor started has no origin. During those days, it was wildly circulated that Bongbong had a fisticuff with one of his Indian national classmate. In that fight, as rumors said, Bongbong was accidentally stabbed and killed. But nowhere in the news that his body returned in the country where there was supposed to be a vigil. No, the Marcoses were mum about the rumor. They took it as a mere joke.

Or the real Bongbong had died in an accident in Manila or after being abducted by armed men somewhere in Mindanao.

Another account says he died in London when he was a teenager.

Anyway, after his supposed death, the family was said to have tapped a Marcos cousin who closely resembled him to undergo plastic surgery and take his place.

But if it's true–then that's one lucky cousin.

What was the reason why such rumor circulated?

During those days, the Marcoses were in power. With the declaration of martial law, that power was perceived to be in perpetuity. After the rule of President Ferdinand E. Marcos, the first lady Imelda will succeed him. Knowing her feistiness, Imelda will of course pass the rule and to their children- Imee and Bongbong. Irene will not be a taker of the reign of government because she had other interests at that time.

With that rumor, the rule of the Marcoses will be cut short . Not another Ferdinand will succeed in taking the throne. To make that a reality, Bongbong must be dead and when a new Bongbong will emerge, people then will say that he’s not the real one. Power of the Marcoses will be broken. The perceived dynastic rule will be curtailed.

But history proved it otherwise. With the EDSA Revolution in 1986, the fear of Marcos critics did not push through. Social and political scenes have already changed. Power has been passed on to many hands.

Was Bongbong, the real macoy?

Of course he is. The man who visited Pangasinan last December 5, and one of our senators, was the real Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. He’s not a clone, not fake and not even traces of plastic surgery could be seen on his face. He resembled his mother’s facial features and his father’s voice and gestures. So the rumor that Bongbong was dead; that Bongbong was cloned will now be put forever into the garbage bins.

While history is unkind to the Marcoses due to the martial law years, let us be kind to the deposed president’s son and namesake Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. There might be some excesses of their family during their rule, Bongbong should not be blamed. Now that he’s all by himself and making a name in political arena, Bongbong should be given a chance to prove himself- to make lives of many Filipinos different.

Sources:
http://northwatch.wordpress.com/2009/12/17/
http://www.spot.ph/newsfeatures/41192/urban-legends-that-drove-pinoys-crazy