Ah, the big four universities in the country: One of the many things they like doing when they’re not busy trashtalking each other in UAAP courts or in Big Four Trashtalkan is talk about spooky stories. Though even this could sometimes lead to another edition of trashtalk session should someone decide to start with “wala kayo sa multo sa’min…”
We often hear stories about the haunted pasts of most schools in the country. Some stories are fairly believable, given the place’s age, while other stories are simply too close to a Regal Shocker they’ll make you say, “I’ve seen this film before.” There was even a myth about schools erected in old cemeteries. I don’t know about you, but, I know at least three schools in one place that used to be cemeteries.
Every school has its own history. If you would think about it, ghost stories are almost always linked to places that witnessed brutal and sometimes tragic events. These places have witnessed wars and calamities – the usual linkage of most of the stories we’ve heard. From nuns and priests to foreign soldiers, there is no running out of stories when it comes to ghostly pasts of these places.
These stories were solicited from alums of the schools we’ll mention.We’ll leave it up to you to decide whether they are believable or not.
Ateneo de Manila University
There are a lot of spooky stories that most Ateneans have heard of. From the much talked about portals to the underworld in various areas on campus, an actual cemetery where the Grade school students go, up to the stories about getting stuck on a loop on a staircase that never seems to reach the ground level.
But one of the scariest stories we’ve heard is about the janitor and the security guard in the haunted Old Communications Department Building. Per our friendly correspondent from the blue side of Katipunan, a security guard asked a janitor in the building if he could use the restroom to answer the call of nature. When the janitor went to check after the security guard finished using it, the toilet was littered with feces all over the place.
To the janitor’s dismay, he confronted the guard and asked why he left the restroom all messed up. The security guard then responded by saying that he left no mess in the loo. He said he made sure it was clean before leaving. But when the security guard turned his back to go, the janitor saw handprints out of feces behind the clothes of the security guard. Creepy and One Big Yikes!
De La Salle University
Then we have this fairly young school founded by the Christian Brothers in 1911. Despite its modern architecture, the school is haunted by many ghosts that, to this day, continue to give students a good scare. Don’t be fooled by the beautiful façade of the most iconic St. La Salle Hall; it’s the first and oldest building on campus. A lot had died in the area during World War II when Japanese soldiers massacred Lasallian brothers and other people taking refuge inside the building – making it home for the most horrifying haunted stories in La Salle.
One of which is the story about the wandering bloodied soldier with a bayonet in his chest in the MBS Chapel. But probably the scariest story I have ever heard was from my block mate who went to the chapel by herself to pray. Aware of the chapel’s ghostly past, she chose to stay in one of the pews near the exit.
While in the middle of reciting a prayer, she abruptly stopped when she heard a snarky laugh of a woman behind her. She knows she’s alone, and there were no people outside where the laughter could’ve come from. Faint but audible enough to make her switch her prayer to Hail Mary. What made her storm out of the chapel was when she heard the voice of a woman mimicking her prayer. Getting louder and louder, seemingly getting closer and closer to her. La Sallian spirit? Truly Animo!
University of the Philippines Diliman
Peyups, the home of the Iskolars ng Bayan. Ask them why there are sunflowers in the entrance of UP. You’ll get the Plants vs Zombies reference “cos that’s where the brains are.” While UP may have been doing a good job in protecting brains against zombies, like the first two schools, it also didn’t escape from the occupation of spirits and other creatures that Science would eagerly debunk. From a dark figure that keeps jumping from the foyer to the ground and back to the foyer in Educ, up to the 3rd floor horrors in the hallways and haunted restrooms in Palma Hall, UP surely has welcomed everyone within its premises, even the uninvited ones.
Judging by the buildings, one could see that UP Diliman loves symmetry. So much so that even the ghosts and entities on the campus seem to ride this trend, too. One of which, the doppelgängers. One particular occurrence happened to a Mass Comm major friend. It happened when she rushed back to her dorm due to the sudden rainfall. Soon as she entered her room, she saw her roommate shocked by her presence. She then asked how she managed to take a shower so fast.
Confused, her roommate then pulled her out of the room. She said that someone that looks like her was in their room when she got home. She said that it took a towel and went straight to the shower area. They checked the shower area and found no one – nothing, except for a soaked towel on the floor.
University of Santo Tomas
The oldest existing university in Asia, older than Harvard, has some of the creepiest haunted stories out there. UST has witnessed both Spanish and Japanese colonial eras. It was even used as an internment camp during the Japanese occupation, where thousands had died. That being said, it’s no surprise that there are many lingering spirits and entities within the university grounds. To this day, there were incidents where students would hear a girl crying. It’s believed that it was the commerce student that jumped from the main building in 1987.
One of the most famous urban legends in USTe is the story of a Dominican friar who would roam around the Benavidez Park or what students call the “Lover’s Lane.” They say that one should avoid walking alone in the park, especially in the middle of the night. They say that a priest would usually show up and with his feet not touching the ground.
There was also a story about a doctor from UST Hospital who rode an elevator with another passenger. When the elevator stopped at the haunted floor, a woman tried to join them, but the doctor closed the door quickly. When asked by the other passenger, the doctor said the woman was wearing a red band on his wrist. He said they only use it for deceased patients and corpses. The other passenger then lifted his left arm and said, “like this?”
Side note: I firmly believe that our minds are extremely powerful. They could make us internalize certain things. Just like what happened while I was typing the last two sentences of the first paragraph about UST. I may or may not have heard a woman crying under my bed.
Whether it’s Law of Attraction or a mere coincidence of something unexplained, I’ll leave you with this; I know every bit of sound that goes in and out of my house. And I know what I heard is not from here; or maybe I’m not alone, after all.
